Redemption
by Legacy of the Avatar
Summary: His father. His country. Himself. Zuko had a lot of people to redeem himself to before he joined the gang, and now he finds himself trying for redemption in Katara's eyes after he makes a mistake of falling in love with her.
1. Chapter 1

An actual fic this time, instead of drabbles.

* * *

Zuko had told himself that asking for help was weakness and no self-respecting Fire Prince would do it. Then again, he wasn't exactly a Fire Prince or very self-respected right now.

And that was only reason that he was allowing the Avatar and his friends to help him. (That, and the fact he could move very well, having been paralyzed by Jun's giant…thing with the tongue.)

"Why would some creepy bounty hunter want him?" the newest friend of the Avatar, a little blind Earthbender, asked. If Zuko could have moved from his position and glared at her, he would have.

"I think it might have something to do with the poster we saw in that desert village, Toph. It looked like a wanted poster," the Avatar said from his position on the bison's head.

"And we got stuck with him _why?_" The Waterbender sighed at the "warrior's" comment as she dug through her bag.

"Because if we didn't, those creepy girls from Omashu would get him and _no one_ deserves that," she explained. "Except maybe Jet and Ozai."

The Waterbender must have found what she looking for, because she pulled out a small bottle of liquid. She uncorked it and held it underneath Zuko's nose. As the prince began to sneeze, she smirked. "I knew this perfume was going to come in handy," she said as she corked it and returned it to the bag.

"You call that perfume?" were Zuko's first words since his paralyzing. The Waterbender nodded.

"It came from the abbey where we last saw that bounty hunter. The Mother Superior gave us a few bottles, just in case we ran into her again."

"Fetches a nice price in the Ba Sing Se market, too," the warrior added. The Waterbender looked at him.

"And just when did you plan on telling me you sold some of it, Sokka?" The boy, Sokka, held his hands up in submission.

"I only sold one, the big bottle with the Earthbending symbol etched on it. I got nine copper pieces, three silver pieces, and a gold piece for it, so there." He tossed a small purse towards who Zuko guessed was his girlfriend. She emptied it and counted the money.

"With that, we now have a lot more than we had before," she announced.

"How much did we have before?" the blind girl asked.

"Before Ba Sing Se? Fifteen copper pieces. _In_ Ba Sing Se, we had fifteen copper pieces, but Aang _had _to buy a new bison whistle, and I needed a new hair tie, so that left us with one copper piece."

"How did it cost fourteen copper pieces to get a broken whistle and a leather strap?" Toph asked. The Waterbender sighed and nodded to the boy.

"Someone sampled the market's food," she said, "and had to pay for breaking a cup."

"Is it my fault the fat shopkeeper put the cup where anyone could knock it over?" Sokka asked.

"Yes."

"Shut up, Katara."

So Katara was the Waterbender, Sokka was her boyfriend, Toph the blind girl, and Aang the Avatar. At least Zuko wouldn't sound like an idiot next time he opened his mouth.

Zuko looked over the edge of the saddle. They were miles above the earth and the sudden realization made Zuko feel queasy. He had never been up this high before. He slowly turned around, praying he didn't look too green.

Sadly, Sokka noticed his face and started snickering. "Looks like someone is motion sick," he taunted.

"I was on a ship for two years, idiot," Zuko spat. "I do not suffer from motion sickness."

"Altitude sickness then."

"Sokka, if he suffered from altitude sickness," Aang replied, "he'd have gotten sick by now."

The Waterbender, Katara, was sympathetic and dug out something to help upset stomachs. "Here. This should help."

"I don't want your cures or sympathy, peasant. As soon as this beast lands, I'll leave you four to whatever it is you're doing." Katara looked a little hurt, but put the cure back in her bag.

"Leaving us is fine," the blind girl interrupted, "but how far do you think you can get without that ostrich horse? We had to leave it at Ba Sing Se."

"What?"

"We left that thing you were riding back at the city. Appa couldn't carry it and us," she explained. "And, personally, I think those creepy girls with the lizards might just catch you if you walk to wherever you're trying to go."

Sokka groaned. "Leave it to Toph to point out what I was trying to forget."

"I still don't see why you guys say he's an angry freak with a ponytail," Toph said simply. "And Katara said so herself, no one deserves to have those three freaks capture him."

_Angry freak with a ponytail? _He didn't know which one had said it first (though he had an idea), but Zuko was going to kill him. "What are saying?" he asked, trying to keep his temper in check.

"That unless you want to be giant walking lizard food, staying with us would be a good idea," Toph said.

"Besides, there's your ankle to deal with," Katara added. Zuko turned to her. His look would have caused a weaker being to quail, but Katara just looked right back at him and continued. "You might not be able to feel it just yet, but you either broke your ankle or sprained it, though it's probably just sprained."

"So you definitely wouldn't be able to get far at all," Toph said.

"So you're saying he's stuck with us! Sis, that's cruel to all of us," Sokka complained. Katara held her hands up submissively.

_So they're brother and sister,_ Zuko noted, glad he hadn't said anything before.

"Has anyone asked Zuko about this?" the Avatar asked. The other three paused, then the two Water brats turned to Zuko. He looked away.

"What choice do I have?" he muttered. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the boy shrug and turn to the Avatar. His sister looked at Zuko a moment longer, then turned away, a sad look in her eyes.

* * *

Would someone clear something up for me? What side is Zuko's scar on, left or right?


	2. Chapter 2

(gawps) Wow, was my first chapter really that good?

* * *

By the time they landed, Zuko could feel the pain in his ankle all right, and it was causing him extreme discomfort. Instead of showing it, though, he put on a stony exterior, acting as if it didn't faze him.

Acting as if it didn't faze him until landing, that is. The bison hit a rock, which caused his ankle to jolt.

He couldn't help it. He gasped in pain.

Katara turned her head to face him. "I'm an idiot. I should have asked if you could feel your ankle yet. It must be killing you." She jumped off the bison. "You'll have to stay on Appa for awhile, Zuko. Let me just help get camp ready then I'll ice your ankle." The girl grabbed a bag and headed over where the others had set everything done.

He heard laughter at something the warrior had done. Zuko turned slightly to see what so funny.

Sokka had apparently fallen on a sticker bush because he was dancing around with the huge pointy barbs stuck to his shirt. Zuko had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at the sight as he turned back around.

Moments later, Katara climbed back up on Appa's saddle. "I'm going to feel for the tender spots and see how badly your ankle is sprained. This is gonna hurt, but try not to fry me, okay?"

Zuko nodded and sat back to let Waterbender inspect his ankle. Gently, Katara poked and prodded, careful every time Zuko flinched. "Well, at least it's only a mild sprain. You'll be better in…a month, at the latest, two weeks at the earliest." She ducked as Zuko sent a small flame out.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, Zuko, but I can't heal sprains like that!" She snapped her fingers. "I can see if I can speed up the process, but no promises." She bent water from flask and formed a glove on her hand. Zuko watched, trying to hide his fascination, as she pressed her hand to his ankle and an eerie blue glow emitted from the water. She waited a few minutes, then sat back. She used the same water and froze it, wrapping it in a piece of cloth and placing on Zuko's ankle.

"Well, I hope that helps. No promises, though. Are you hungry?" Katara looked at him. Zuko was about to shake his head, wanting no more help from her than necessary, but at that moment, his stomach rumbled, so he nodded. "Good. I'll bring you dinner after it's done." She got down and scurried back to the fire, just a few feet away.

"How's Scarface?" Toph asked Katara.

"His ankle's sprained, but I put ice on it and used my water healing to see if I can speed up the healing process," Katara replied. "No promises that it'll work, but I tried. How's dinner coming?" Toph rolled her sightless eyes.

"Don't ask," she muttered, nodding to where Aang and Sokka were attempting to cook. What they were succeeding in was making a huge mess. It was just soup, and yet the boys had caused it to spill over. And the less said about the mess of chopped vegetables, the better. Katara sighed.

"Do you boys need help?" she called. Sokka and Aang looked up at her, turned to each other, and nodded furiously.

"Please!" Katara chuckled and headed over to save dinner. Toph shook her head and raised her voice.

"Hey, Twinkle Toes! Time for practice before dinner!" Aang looked up and ran over to Toph.

"Ready whenever you are, Toph!" Toph nodded, then led Aang away to practice Earthbending.

It was about an hour before Katara had finished cleaning up her brother and the Avatar's mess and finished dinner. As everyone else ate, Katara dished out another bowl and made her way over to Zuko.

"Here." Zuko took the proffered bowl and looked at it. In the dim light, he couldn't see all that well, but he smelled the aroma of the soup and his hunger outweighed his feeling of insult at resorting to peasant fare for food. (And it was better than what he had been eating by a long shot.) The exiled prince felt the weight of the ice leave his ankle. He dimly saw Katara gather cloth bundles.

"You need to elevate your ankle, Zuko," she said. Zuko nodded and moved his ankle to the pile of soft cloths. Katara checked for anything other than a sprain and nodded when she found nothing. "I'll be back right before I go to sleep to put more ice on your ankle."

"Why are you doing this for me?" His question clearly caught the young Waterbender off guard.

"What do you mean?" Katara cocked her head to study the prince.

"I chased you and your brother, along with the Avatar, for at least five months, yet you're seeing to my comfort and healing me," Zuko explained. "Why?"

Katara paused. "Well, you didn't look very threatening back at the abandoned village; you looked really pitiful compared to how you used to look." Katara scooted back, just in case Zuko decided to shoot a fireball at her. "And I'm a healer by nature. I just care for people in pain, unless it's those creepy Fire Nation girls or Ozai or Jet." Zuko wondered who Jet was, but decided not to ask.

"So what you're saying is that you're merciful?" Zuko asked. At Katara's nod, Zuko snorted. "Mercy will get you no where."

"Well," Katara said, sounding offended and looking around her as she got down, "I like no where better than anywhere else right now." She proceeded to climb off the saddle.

_Thank her, you idiot._ Zuko opened his mouth to thank Katara, but she had already left the bison to eat.

* * *

Short, yeah, I know. So sue me. It should get better as time progresses. (I hope.) 


	3. Chapter 3

Zuko awoke feeling very dizzy. Looking around, he realized the edges of his vision were blurry and his mouth tasted funny.

"That stupid peasant must have drugged the soup or something," he muttered.

_To make sure you had painless sleep, probably. She doesn't seem the type to drug people without a good cause, _his common sense (which never seemed to be around when he needed it) interjected.

Zuko realized his brain was right and sat up, trying to throw the last remains of the drug off his senses. When he was himself again, he noticed it was almost dawn and the Avatar and his friends were still sleeping. And where had that rock tent come from?

"Lazy," he muttered with a derisive undertone in his voice.

"Oh, really?" He spun his head around so fast he got a crick in his neck. Katara was awake, and looking up at him from the ground with her arms crossed across her chest.

"What are you doing up?" Zuko spat.

"I couldn't sleep. I can only take so much of Sokka's snores before all hope of sleep is lost," Katara said casually. "Besides, someone has to get breakfast ready before they get up. And since I'm the only one who has any cooking skills in the slightest, it's up to me."

"What about that other girl? Toph?" Katara waved a hand in front of her eyes.

"She's blind, and it's not safe to let her near fire," she reminded him. "She knows recipes, but she can't cook them."

"Why did you drug me last night?"

"Well, drugging you seemed the easiest way to make sure your ankle didn't wake you in pain."

"Why did you drug me without telling me?"

"You slept well last night, didn't you?"

Zuko tried to come up with a comeback, but couldn't. Katara noticed and smirked. She'd won this round. She climbed up on the bison and inspected the Firebender's ankle. Upon finding the swelling had receded slightly, she froze more water and put ice on it.

"How does it feel?"

"Like a Komodo Rhino trampled it." Katara giggled slightly at his comment. As she made her way back down, Zuko stopped her. "I never thanked you last night for helping get me out of Ba Sing Se, Katara."

Katara paused. Zuko knew what she was thinking; the former Prince of the Fire Nation had thanked a Waterbender and thanked her _by name_. She probably didn't think he was capable of the simple act.

A moment passed, and Katara nodded. "You're welcome, Zuko." She climbed off.

* * *

Another rock flew by Zuko's head, causing him to duck. "For the Avatar, that kid has poor aim," he muttered. It was a few hours after his "talk" with Katara. Toph was attempting to teach Aang Earthbending, but he kept losing control of his rock.

"Sorry, Zuko!" Aang called for the tenth time.

For the tenth time, Zuko muttered, "No, you're not." He wouldn't be at all surprised if that stupid Water Tribe warrior was telling the Avatar to try to hit him.

Zuko noticed Katara standing off to the side, watching Aang and Toph practice, arms crossed. She seemed genuinely interested in what they were doing while she waited for something.

"Agh!" Aang collapsed to the ground, clutching his shoulder. Katara rushed over, Toph right behind her.

"I'm sorry, Aang! I couldn't see you!" Toph exclaimed. Katara shook her head as she inspected Aang's shoulder.

"That's what you get for floating half an inch off the ground during Earthbending practice, Aang," she reprimanded. She drew out water from her flask and began to heal the bruised limb.

"I'm sorry. The ground's hot here and my feet get burned when I stand on the sand too long," Aang complained, wincing when Katara touched his shoulder.

"Well, you're in luck," Toph said. "That's the end of today's lesson in Earthbending."

Aang nodded and ran back to where he had left his shoes, quick to put them on. He looked up…

And was promptly washed by a sudden downpour of rain. "Head for cover!" he cried, rushing to the packs and digging out a tarp. Toph bent a small rock slab as a makeshift umbrella and ran as fast as she could to Appa. Katara and Sokka helped Aang spread the tarp over the saddle, covering everyone, including Zuko.

"We just got out of a desert and we're getting thunderstorms?" Sokka muttered. Toph laughed.

"If you don't like the weather in the Earth Kingdom, stick around. It'll change," she replied.

"I liked the Water Tribe a lot better. There were only types of weather," Sokka complained.

"Yeah. Cold and colder," Katara pointed out. "I like it here. It's warmer and there's color."

Zuko dimly remembered the white and blue color scheme of the South Pole. It was like the red and black scheme of the Fire Nation. Fourteen years of looking at it would get boring.

"Where did this tarp come from?" Zuko muttered to Katara. She seemed to be the only one who was semi-civil to him.

"Um…hey Aang, did Bumi give us the tarp or did the king of Ba Sing Se?"

"Bumi."

"We got it from Omashu on our first visit. Bumi is an old friend of Aang, literally," Katara explained. "He's a little…eccentric, but he's a nice guy. He said that if we were in the Earth Kingdom by spring, we'd thank him for this later." Katara looked out at the rain. "Looks like he was right."

It continued raining for several hours. Katara began to dig through her bags to find something edible that didn't need cooking. Seeing the bags made Zuko remember something.

"Did you get my things before you left the ostrich horse in Ba Sing Se?" he asked, still annoyed that they'd left his horse, albeit a stolen horse.

Katara nodded and pointed to the longer package with the sword handles sticking out slightly. "What do you keep in there? A Spider Elephant?" she remarked as she handed it to him. Zuko rolled eyes and felt the bundle to make sure it hadn't been messed with. It hadn't.

"Well, it looks like we're gonna be here for a while," Toph said. "It's the start of the seasonal rains." Zuko groaned inwardly. He hated rain almost as much as he hated Azula. It weakened his bending and made his hair stick to his face.

"How long do these rains usually last?" he asked. Toph turned her sightless eyes to him.

"A week at least, and when I was about ten it rained like this for two months," she replied.

Zuko nodded, but inwardly moaned. He was stuck on a giant flying beast with the Avatar and his companions in the middle of a thunderstorm, with a sprained ankle. Life couldn't get any worse, could it?


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Grr. If I owned Avatar, Zuko and Iroh would have joined up with Aang and them a loooong while ago (like, first episode, second season?). Have they? No, so I don't own Avatar.

* * *

"Agh!"

Katara flinched as she pulled the thorns from Sokka's arms and back. "I'm trying to be careful, Sokka, honestly."

Aang came over and winced at the marks on Sokka's skin. "Oh, that's gonna leave a mark," he muttered.

"Hey, mind not just making comments and help here?" Sokka asked. He had fallen in another thorn bush, having slipped on a wet rock when he had left the protective covering of the tarp for food.

"We have a tendency to have injured people in this party, don't we?" Toph asked, lounging around. "And, oddly enough, they're usually Sokka."

"Hey! I didn't get hurt in the desert! Ow!" He looked at the spot where the thorn had been pulled from his skin.

"You call being drugged on cactus juice uninjured? Sokka, you were talking to a mushroom cloud of sand," Katara pointed out, "and then started singing."

Zuko sighed as the warrior began to protest. How could they do it? How could they live with each other day in and day out for weeks and not snap? (Though, by the sounds of the latest conversation, the boy had either never been completely there or had snapped from it all.)

Suddenly, Zuko heard something behind him. Slowly he turned his head so his peripheral vision could see what happening behind him. Of course, that was rendered completely pointless as a dagger flew past Zuko to bury itself in Katara's shoulder.

"Ambush!" Zuko cried as Aang scrambled to Appa's head and grabbed the reins. Sokka forgot about his thorns and knelt by his sister, who had collapsed.

"Appa, yip yip! Yip yip!" Appa groaned and took off, Momo flying behind them. Everyone saw the three girls come rushing out and heard the distinct cursing of the leader.

Katara was gritting her teeth as her brother gently removed the dagger. "Ouch!" Sokka held up the dagger.

"That had to hurt," he said, taking a rag and cleaning the blood off it. He inspected. "Hmm, not a bad blade."

"No joke, Sokka!" Sokka blushed when he realized he had almost forgotten that same blade injured his sister.

"Will you be able to heal it?" he asked. Katara nodded and reached for her flask. It had rolled over by Zuko in the take off and she couldn't reach it. Zuko noticed and handed it to her. As she reached for it, their hands touched slightly.

Katara pulled away as if she had been burned, but then slowly took her flask from Zuko. "Thanks," she murmured, uncorking the flask and healing her shoulder. Zuko shrugged and sat back, wincing when his ankle jolted.

Katara hit her forehead and froze some water into ice for Zuko. It wasn't much, but it would be enough to numb his ankle. "As soon as we land, I'll see if I can find some plants that work as pain killers so I don't cause any tissue damage," she said. Zuko nodded, watching Katara. (He had become an observant person after two years on a ship with little else to do.)

Katara clearly felt his gaze on her because she focused on de-thorning her big brother, glancing his way every so often and fidgeting slightly, as if she was trying to avoid his gaze.

* * *

Hours later, they stopped for the night. "I'll be right back," Katara said, leaping from Appa and running off into the surrounding woods.

"Where'd she go?" Toph asked Aang. The young Avatar shrugged and started taking the tarp down. Sokka limped over to help him, still a little a sore from the thorns. Toph stayed on Appa and started throwing the packs down. As she reached for Zuko's, he stopped her.

"Don't touch that," he snapped. Toph held her hands up in submission.

"Fine, keep your pants on. It's not like there's anything useful in there anyway," she said. Zuko snorted. If she only knew just how useful his few belongings were…

Just then, Katara came back with something clutched in her hand. Sokka stopped her. "What are those?"

"As-prin weed, tyllenoll seed, and ibuprofenn plants," she said. "Pain killer plants for Zuko. His ankle must be killing him."

"Yeah, so?" Sokka asked, blinking. Katara rolled her eyes and swatted her brother.

"Sokka, just because Zuko tried to capture Aang and tied me to a tree doesn't mean I'm not going help him! Besides, do you want a furious Firebender on our hands? Trust me; that pain would cause even the most sweet-natured person to snap," Katara said as she started boiling water to turn the plants into a tea.

Zuko watched as Katara not only minded the water, but also made dinner with the food Sokka and Aang had gotten. While she did that, Toph and the boys set up as decent a camp they could. No tents in case Azula caught up.

About thirty minutes later, the tea finished and Katara dished some out into a cup. It was a bit complicated, getting up Appa without spilling the tea, but Katara managed.

"I'm warning you," she said as she handed it to Zuko, "it might not taste the best. Those plants are a bit on the bitter side." Zuko merely nodded and took the tea, ready to do anything to dull his pain. He took one sip and promptly gagged.

"'Bitter' is putting it mildly," he said after swallowing the drink. Katara shrugged.

"I warned you," she said sheepishly. Suddenly, her brother's voice distracted her.

"Hey Katara! Is the food done yet?" Katara sighed and clambered down, leaving Zuko with his tea.

How did his uncle drink this stuff? It was worse than that ginseng tea he once drank. Zuko paused when he thought of his uncle. If only he hadn't…he shook. _Shut up, Zuko. It's no good thinking like that._

But it was his fault!

_No, it's your wench of a sister's fault. She gave him the injury, not you. You can't bend lighting, so how could you have done it?_

His common sense had a point, again. (Where was it three years ago? Ever since his banishment, his sense had spoken when he didn't want it, but it had remained silent in war room.)

Zuko sighed, tired. He attempted to get comfortable, feigning sleep when Katara brought him his dinner. He wasn't hungry.


	5. Chapter 5

_Two and a half weeks later…_

Zuko's ankle had healed, but he had to get used to walking again. So what did Sokka do?

Prod the poor Fire Prince with his boomerang whenever he stopped.

About four hours of that while walking (Appa was a dead giveaway. The others had agreed that they'd fly him every three days), Zuko turned around and snatched the boomerang from Sokka.

"Hey! Gimme that!" Zuko shook his head.

"You're lucky I haven't fried you yet, you stupid peasant. Anyone else would have," Zuko threatened. Sokka imitated someone talking with his hand and tried to snatch the boomerang from Zuko; the Fire Prince held out of his reach. "I don't think so."

Aang, who had been watching, rolled his eyes. He walked over to Zuko and swiped the boomerang. "_I'll _take this," he said and put it in his pack. "Saves a fight later."

"Thank you! Scarface and Snoozles were starting to annoy me," Toph said, still walking. Katara giggled and went on as well. Aang followed her, Zuko coming shortly after. Sokka was left standing there with a stupid look on his face for a few seconds, then he hurried after them.

How did that blind brat know he had a scar? She couldn't see! Someone must have described him to her. And the next time she called him "Scarface",…Zuko shook his head. He had to learn to keep his temper in check. That was what had alerted Azula to Iroh and him.

"Zuko? Did you even hear me?" Zuko blinked. He had been so absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn't heard Katara speaking. "I asked if you thought this was a good spot for camp."

"Why ask him? He's the enemy for cryin' out loud!" Sokka said. Katara glared at her older brother then turned back to Zuko.

He looked around. They were in a small grove, more like an oasis, with a small pond of water. He shrugged. "It seems fine to me."

"See? He doesn't even care!" Katara turned to her brother.

"Sokka, I love you to death, I really do. But could you do me a huge favor, and just shut up? I really don't want to tick Zuko off right now," she added in a whisper. Sokka rolled his eyes but nodded and shut his mouth.

Everyone threw down the packs they had been carrying and Aang collapsed. "Wake me up when it's time for Earthbending practice," he moaned. "Walking stinks."

"You've said that before, Aang," Katara reminded him as she looked around for firewood. "Consider it exercise."

"Exercise stinks."

"What do you call Earthbending, Twinkle Toes?" Toph asked. "Dancing?"

"Yes." Toph turned to Katara, and the two girls started laughing.

"Aang, do you even know what dancing is?" Katara asked. Aang sat up, indignant.

"Yes!" Toph grinned.

"A better question, Katara, is does he know _how _to dance," she said tauntingly.

"I'm a monk! I'm the Avatar! Dancing isn't really high on my list of really important things to learn!" Aang exclaimed. Toph and Katara continued to laugh uproariously. Aang rolled his eyes and turned to Sokka.

"Are all girls like this?" Sokka shrugged; Zuko surprised them both by answering.

"At their age, yes." Sokka gaped at him.

"How the heck would you know this?" he asked, awed. Zuko gave Sokka a cold look.

"I have…a sister," he said. "She and her friends took they're pleasure from aggravating me." _Still do, _he thought bitterly. Sokka shrugged and turned to where his sister and Toph were standing.

"Am I going to have to raid the supplies for dinner?" he asked. Katara rolled her eyes and finished getting the firewood.

"Zuko, could you…?" She motioned to the firewood. Zuko didn't respond, just sent a small blast of fire at the wood. "Thanks." Katara smiled at him, but Zuko merely shrugged and walked off.

"Where's Scarface off to?" Toph asked.

"Probably sulking somewhere," Sokka replied, rolling his eyes.

"Sokka, will you please stop? You keep talking about Zuko like that and I'll be minus one brother in a few days," Katara said as she began to prepare dinner.

"Why do you keep doing that, sis?"

"Doing what?"

"Speaking out for Zuko! For the love of Yue, he tied you to a tree and nearly killed Aang!" Sokka started waving his arms and pacing.

"Sokka, there's no proof that he almost killed at any point in time, and you know it. I speak out because I really don't see the point in driving him nuts," Katara said.

"He's already gone loony," Toph muttered to Sokka. Sokka nodded.

"Anyway, maybe once you stop aggravating him he'll help Aang with Firebending!" Katara added, a little bit louder than before. She had heard that last remark.

"And I have a funny feeling Zuko's gonna be with us for a lot longer than you think, Sokka, so might as well be somewhat pleasant," Aang put in. Sokka groaned. "I'm not saying you have to be best friends with the guy! I'm just saying stop annoying him."

"But I'm bored!"

"So am I! So is Aang!" Katara cried. "Toph's probably bored from all this traveling and running as well. You don't see us aggravating you, huh?"

"Actually…"

"Sokka, just stop it, okay? I don't think Zuko is all that bad, to tell the truth."

Zuko had been behind a few trees, listening to the conversation. He had no idea, earthly or otherwise, why the girl was telling her brother to knock it off. _"I don't think Zuko is all that bad, to tell the truth." _Where had that come from?

In all actuality, Zuko was, dare he say it, _happy _that someone didn't think he was totally evil, even if it was the Waterbender. He shook his head and sat down, intent on meditating.

It was about an hour later that Zuko stood and reentered the campsite. "Oh, there you are Zuko," Katara said when she noticed him. "I'm almost done with dinner." Zuko nodded and sat down on a nearby log.

Suddenly, Zuko was thrown forward by a flying rock hitting his back. Katara stopped what she was doing and kneeled by Zuko. "Oh, are you okay?"

"Other being rendered momentarily breathless," Zuko gasped as he attempted to sit up again, "and a sore back, I'm fine." He looked up and met Katara clear blue eyes. They locked gazes for at least a minute.

"Sorry!" Aang's cry snapped the two teenaged benders out of…whatever. "I, um, missed."

Katara rolled her eyes and helped Zuko up. "I guess I should warn you; Aang gets overzealous and can lose control of whatever he's bending. I can't count the times he drenched Sokka when I was teaching him Waterbending. Though it was on purpose every once in a while."

"Yeah, well, he'd best learn to stay focused if he's ever going to learn Firebending," Zuko muttered. "I'm not saying I'll teach him, but someone's going to have to sooner or later." _And it'll probably end up being me, anyway, _he added mentally.

* * *

Okay, school starts in week for me, so my updates (which are already coming slower than I'd like) will be a little slower. (Is high school really that hard?)


	6. Chapter 6

Again, sorry for the delay; real life happens. (Curses!)

* * *

"Sokka, I think we're lost."

"Nope. I know exactly where we are."

"Sokka, I really think we're lost!"

"No, Aang, trust me. We are not lost."

"Sokka?"

"What?"

"We're lost."

Sokka sighed and turned to Aang, who was looking over the side of the bison's saddle. "Why do you think we're lost?"

The young Airbender pointed down to the earth. "Call it a hunch." Everyone but Toph (who couldn't see anyway) looked down.

They were flying back over the same little oasis they had camped at the night before. "It's the third time now that we've flown over it," Aang said. Sokka groaned and landed Appa.

"Is this place even on the map?" he asked, taking out a very tattered scroll. Aang looked over his shoulder and pointed to a small little dot with the word "Oasis" next to it.

"That might be us, but I can't be sure. And if it is us, then we want to go thataway," he pointed to the east, "to get to the Eastern Air Temple. That's one place that lady with the blue fire can't get to, even if she tried."

"The lady with the blue fire is Azula," Zuko corrected, walking over to the Avatar. "Why wouldn't she be able to reach it?"

Aang wanted to ask how Zuko knew the girl's name, but didn't. Instead, he replied, "The Eastern Air Temple was a woman's temple; they had plenty of booby traps."

"But the Fire Nation wiped out all the Air Temples," Toph called. Aang looked sad for a split second, but bounced right back.

"Even if they did, I assure you, the Mother Superior left some of the…more deadly traps untouched. Airbenders don't usually approve of violence, but Lelali was little paranoid," Aang said with a smile. "That lady, Azula, won't be able to reach us even if she finds us."

Katara nodded. "Sounds good to me."

Zuko didn't say anything, but he had funny feeling that no matter where they went, his sister would find them.

Or find him, to be precise.

* * *

Zuko was looking out over the bison's side, bored witless. As each day progressed, he gained more respect for Katara, the Avatar, and Toph. (He had nothing but contempt for Sokka.) They rode this thing for weeks on end and dealt with Sokka's sloth at the same time, and they weren't insane. Yet.

"What was the Fire Nation like?" Zuko turned at the sound of Katara's voice.

"What? Why would you care?" he asked. Katara shrugged.

"I'm bored. So, will you tell me?" Zuko shrugged. It wasn't like he had better things to do.

"The Fire Nation…" It had been three years. Did he still remember what it looked like? "I can't tell you what it looked like on the other side of the palace walls; I didn't get out much. But the whole capital was painted in various shades of red, black, and gold. You couldn't escape the colors; everywhere was painted in it, and everyone wore it."

"Sounds dull," Katara said.

"It was. When I was living there, I didn't think so, but after I…left, I began to realize how mind crushingly dull the color scheme was."

Katara chuckled. "Kinda like the Poles. Blue and white for miles, blue and white."

"It usually had a burning smell in the air, particularly in the summer, when the already dry woods and such got accidentally lit on fire by missed Firebending shots," Zuko continued. "Other than that, the Fire Nation was…_is _beautiful, though I haven't been back in three years." He shut up and didn't say another word.

Katara tried to get more out of him, but Zuko wasn't talking; she sighed and started to mope like everyone else.

Suddenly, clouds covered the sun and thunder rolled. "Great, just peachy," Sokka, who was driving, muttered. "Hang on!" He pulled sharply on Appa's reins, causing everything (and everyone) to start tumbling. Katara, who had been kneeling in front of Zuko, tumbled right into the Fire Prince's lap.

Instinctively, Zuko grabbed Katara, just in case she should fall off. He felt Katara grab his neck and hold on. Dimly, the exiled Fire Prince registered that his unscarred cheek was pressed against Katara's cheek.

No sooner had they landed near some trees did the heavens pour out everything they had. "Head for cover!" Sokka, Aang, and Toph jumped off Appa and dashed towards the tightly clustered trees. Katara and Zuko stayed on the bison for a second, then Zuko spoke.

"I can't get up unless you let go and get off of me," he pointed out to Katara. She blushed and moved from the Fire Prince's lap. She jumped off and ran off after her brother and friends.

Zuko hesitated, then decided he'd rather be there than out in the storm and followed suit. He got under the trees and stopped, leaning up against one with his arms crossed in an all-too familiar stance.

"Okay, someone else is gonna cook tonight," Katara was saying. "I really need to teach Aang more Waterbending."

"I can cook a little," Toph said. "Nothing big, just soup and stuff like that." Katara nodded.

"That's fine. We're used to that," Katara replied with wry smile. Sokka rolled eyes, but Katara swatted him. They looked for dry pieces of wood and set up a small fire.

"Zuko, would you mind?" Zuko rolled his eyes and started the fire. What was he, a human torch?

_Well, technically…_

_Before you even get started, _he berated himself, _shut up. You always make me feel…_

_Stupid? _

_Not the word I was looking for, but close enough._ Zuko shook his head. He was arguing with himself! And being insulted! He groaned softly. The heat and his new traveling companions were getting to him.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Katara, hair down and wet. "Dinner's done if you're hungry, Zuko." He nodded, turning his head away. Katara paused, then turned to go. "Oh, thanks for catching me earlier."

"Earlier? How long have I been standing here?"

"Two hours, roughly. Sokka said you were really withdrawn. Is something wrong?" Inwardly, Zuko frowned. Was she always like this?

"No," he said shortly. "I'm not hungry, either." He crossed his arms, taking on that stubborn prince look.

"Okay. Well, you might not be hungry now, but you might be later. I'll make sure Sokka doesn't eat it all," Katara said. Zuko merely nodded.

Katara sighed. She was trying to reach out; it just wasn't working.

* * *

Go read Vicki So's _Til Death Do Us Part_. It's freakin' hilarious!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: On a scale from 1 to 10, the likelihood of me owning Avatar is negative point five. (In other words,I don't own it.)

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"Not yet."

"Are we there yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Are we there yet?"

Toph, Aang, and Katara, who had each told Sokka "no" separately, sighed and said in unison, "No!"

Zuko sighed. Sokka's constant questions were driving him crazy. If he asked that question one more time, they'd be minus one traveling partner.

"Are we are there _yet?_"

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Yes," he said through gritted teeth.

"Really?"

"No!" Zuko spun around, glaring at Sokka. "And if you ask one more time, I'll throw you off the bison."

Katara tried to restrain from laughing. Sokka glared at her. "What's so funny?"

"You two. It's funny watching you two have at each other, especially when there's nothing else to do." Aang, who was sitting at Appa's head, smiled and nodded.

"She's right-hey!" He dodged another dagger. This one missed everyone. Everyone scrambled over to the edge of the saddle, even Toph.

The three girls from Omashu were down there, and the dark, creepy one was throwing more weapons. "We have land!" Aang called.

"What? Aang, do you wanna die?" Sokka croaked. Aang shook his head, but proceeded to land.

"Aang! What on Earth are you doing?" Toph asked, forgetting to use the nickname.

"We have to land!"

"No we don't!"

"Appa's tail got hit! I have to land!" Aang replied and landed Appa.

"Well, well, look at this, Mai. My bastard brother is traveling with the Avatar now," scorned the one who was obviously the leader. Everyone looked at Zuko, but the pink one's voice turned attention to the girls.

"Ha! I told you, Mai! Pay up!" Mai scowled and tossed the girl a small bag of coins.

"What do you want, Azula?" Zuko called, hoping he sounded bored.

"You have to ask, Zuzu?" Everyone giggled, silenced when Zuko glared.

"What do you want?"

"Stupid _and _weak," Azula said. "Very well. What I want, dear brother, are you and the Avatar in chains."

"Tough luck, you can't have Aang." Sokka threw his boomerang at Azula. She wasn't expecting it, so it hit her in the shoulder. "I don't care if you take Zuko."

_Gee, thanks,_ Zuko thought bitterly. He ducked as Mai threw a shuriken his way. The fight had begun.

Both Aang and Katara sent water whips at the three girls, but Azula evaporated them. Toph jumped down from Appa, sending a large, localized earthquake at the girls. Only the pink one could keep her balance and bounded off towards Toph.

"Toph! Watch out! She's the one who can take away bending!" Katara called. Toph nodded.

"Gotcha." Toph caused a small earthen prison to surround the girl and topped it off with another slab. "That's one outta the way."

Aang came zipping by on his air scooter, sending various blasts of air at the other girls in hopes of knocking them down again. No such luck.

Mai kept throwing various sharp, pointed things at various people. "Do you want me to get Ty Lee out?" she asked in a bored voice to Azula.

"No. It's a pleasant change to fight without her constant perkiness. I say we leave her there." Mai just shrugged and continued the battle.

Zuko rolled his eyes inwardly. He really hoped Ty Lee heard that. Out of Azula's friends, she was nicer than the others.

"Hey! Let me out! I'm afraid of the dark and I'm getting kinda claustrophobic!" Ty Lee called. Toph grinned evilly.

"I'll let ya out when we're done here, Pokey!" Someone had told her Ty Lee could merely jab your arm and render it useless.

The fight went on for several minutes. Zuko's shirt was singed, as was Katara's braid. Sokka's throwing arm had gotten sore and Aang was nearly out of breath. Toph's feet were getting sore from her stomping and from Aang stepping on her toes when she was busy.

"Give up?" Azula asked, inspecting her nails. Aang looked at her, panting.

"Not a chance." Azula sighed.

"Very well. Mai, now."

Suddenly, Katara cried out in pain as Mai's flying blade scratched her back, leaving a deep cut. Aang saw Katara collapse in pain and entered the Avatar State.

"What the…" Zuko muttered as he watched Aang's anger take on a whole new level. This was a lot worse than when he had risen from the water back at the South Pole shortly after being found.

His thoughts were interrupted as Sokka tackled him to the ground. "What do you think you're doing?" he yelled.

"Hey, if you want to be caught in the attack Aang's about unleash on that brat, then be my guest. He entered the Avatar State and can't really control what he's doing!" Sokka explained, grabbing Toph's hand and pulling her down as well.

Azula saw what her attack had caused the Avatar to do; she knew that she was no match for a furious Avatar. She sent another bolt of blue flame and dashed off before Aang could harness it and send it back.

After Azula and Mai had run off, Aang left the Avatar State and stumbled over to Katara. Sokka stood and ran, Toph right behind him. Zuko trailed at the end.

For some reason, he was furious at Mai for attacking Katara. Watching the Waterbender collapse like did something to Zuko, he just didn't know what.

When reached the others, they had Katara on her side, Aang and Sokka inspecting the wound. "Is it poisoned?" Sokka asked Aang. He shrugged.

"If you let me out, I could tell you!" Ty Lee called from her prison. Toph turned to Sokka and Aang.

"Should I let our guest here out?"

"If she knows anything that could help Katara, yes, by all means, let the little creep out," Sokka said as he took Katara's water skin and soaked a rag in the water to clean his little sister's cut. Katara whimpered in pain when he touched it.

"One, I'm not a creep," Ty Lee said as she headed over to Katara. (Not that she could run if she wanted to. Toph had her hands cuffed in rock behind her back.) "My name's Ty Lee. And if Mai attacked her, then it's probably not poisoned. She may be a little…dark at times, but she's okay." Ty Lee inspected the cut. "She'll be fine once it heals."

Sokka nodded and pulled Ty Lee up. "Thank you." He turned to Aang, his grip on Ty Lee tight. "What do we do with her? We have one Fire Nation scum ball already; I'm not traveling with two of them. They might team up."

Aang was kneeling by Katara, cleaning the wound. "I dunno. Ask Zuko." He looked at Katara. "Could you heal this?"

Katara shook her head. "I can't reach that far on my back, and I need to actually touch the cut to heal it, according to the classes I took in the North Pole. There are some bandages in my bag."

"Got 'em." While Aang set about getting the bandages, Sokka turned to Zuko.

"You know her?" he asked, nodding towards Ty Lee.

"She's friends with my sister, and has been since they were kids," Zuko said emotionlessly. "Between my sister, Mai, and Ty Lee, Ty Lee not nearly as sadistic as Azula, and is considerably, er, _brighter _than Mai."

"What do you want to do with her?"

"I'm right here, you know," Ty Lee said. Both boys ignored her.

"I don't know!" Zuko exclaimed, waving his arms around. "I don't know if I trust her not to run back to Azula as soon as she realizes where we're going!"

"Hey! I've known you all my life, Zuko!" Ty Lee interjected. Zuko glared at her. "You're not nearly as scary as Azula."

"So what do we do? Keep her with us, tied up?" Zuko took a deep breath and held his head in his hands.

"Sure. Just keep all knifes away from her, and make sure she can't jab anyone. She's a kyusho jitsu master," Zuko warned. Sokka rolled his eyes.

"I know." He thrust Ty Lee at Zuko and started digging in his bag for rope. He found the rope he had stolen from Zuko at the North Pole and cut rather long pieces from it. He first tied Ty Lee's ankles together. "Toph, can you get rid of the rock bracelets you gave her?"

Meanwhile, Aang was wrapping Katara's back and stomach, trying his hardest not to blush. Katara winced whenever he hit the wound. "Sorry."

"It's okay."

Zuko was watching from the corner of his eye. Aang was wrapping the bandages all wrong. It was going to make Katara very sore.

"Aang," he said, using his first name for the first time, "let me do it. You're going end up making her sore." Aang looked crestfallen, but stepped aside for Zuko to take over.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Just what do you think you're doing?" Sokka asked as he finished tying up Ty Lee.

"What does it look like? I'm wrapping your sister's bandages," Zuko said, not looking up.

"No. I'll do it."

"Sokka," Katara grunted, "you don't know _how _to wrap bandages properly. Let Zuko do it. He won't hurt me."

"If you say so, sis."

Zuko helped Katara sit up so it was easier to wrap the bandages. "Hold still."

"Like I'm going to do otherwise," she muttered. She gasped in pain.

"Sorry," Zuko murmered, taking care not to jolt her again. In a matter of minutes, the process was done. "Can you walk?" Katara attempted to stand, but gasped in pain.

"Don't think so." Zuko stood, then helped Katara up slowly. She leaned up against him for support.

They attempted to walk back to Appa, but Katara couldn't go that far without wincing. Before Zuko could think, he had picked her up and carried her to the bison.

Sokka glared at Zuko, but didn't argue. He took Katara from Zuko and set her down gently next to Ty Lee.

"Hi," the prisoner acrobat said. Katara scooted as far away as she could. Even though Ty Lee was tied up, she might have another way to take away bending.

Zuko clambered up Appa's side and sat down next to Katara. "I don't think Ty Lee can do much of anything right now, Katara," he said as he sat down. Katara nodded, but stayed where she was.

"Everyone ready?" Aang asked from Appa's head. Sokka looked around, then nodded. "Okay. Since we have a first time flyer, let me remind everyone to keep all hands and feet inside the bison at all times. Appa, yip yip!" Appa groaned and took off.

* * *

If the coversation at the beginning sounds familar, I'm sorry, I was watching Shrek 2 at the time.

And for those who might be wondering, this is taking place after the unseen new episode.


	8. Chapter 8

Zuko woke up with a sore neck. It was nighttime and they were still flying. He looked at the sky and realized it was actually almost dawn. He must have fallen asleep on Appa, along with everyone else, he registered when he saw Toph and Aang curled up next to each other and Ty Lee slumped in her seat. _Where's Sokka?_

He looked towards Appa's head and saw Sokka's warrior's wolf-tail sticking out. Zuko attempted to move, but something heavy was on his arm.

Looking down, he realized that Katara had fallen asleep leaning on his arm. Zuko groaned. Waking her up just to move his arm was stupid and overall rude. So, with a sigh, Zuko allowed Katara to use his arm as a pillow.

He wasn't about to admit he didn't mind having the girl so close to him; he didn't know it himself.

* * *

A few hours later, everyone was awake and moving, except for Katara (it hurt for her to move much) and Ty Lee (who was tied up). "Where are we going?" Ty Lee asked Zuko.

"Don't tell her that," Sokka snapped. Zuko rolled his eyes.

"It's not like she go anywhere," he muttered. Sokka glared at him.

"Y'know, how do we know that you're on our side and this isn't some big elaborate plan to capture Aang?" he questioned. Zuko, close to losing it, dug into his pack and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Read that and then tell me this is some plan, you stupid peasant," he snapped. Sokka took the paper and read it aloud.

"Wanted dead or alive for high treason to the Honorable Fire Lord Ozai, retired General Iroh and Fire Prince Zuko. They are not to be approached without professional assistance. General Iroh is usually unarmed, but always dangerous. The Fire Prince Zuko is not nearly as powerful as his uncle is, but can still pose a threat. Price for Iroh alive is 8,000 gold pieces. Price for Zuko is 4,000 gold pieces. If dead, both are worth 3,000 gold pieces.

"Long live Fire Lord Ozai!"

Sokka put down the paper, shocked. Everyone was quiet in shock.

"I told you it was a wanted poster we saw at Ba Sing Se," Aang muttered.

"Okay, so you're not plotting against us," Sokka said once the shock had worn down. "Still, don't tell her _anything_." He turned back to steering Appa and ended the conversation.

"Is he always like that?" Ty Lee asked Katara. Katara, still a bit wary, but slowing warming up to the acrobat, nodded. "Is he related to you?"

"Don't answer that, Katara!" Sokka called out. Katara rolled her eyes.

"He's my brother," she whispered. Ty Lee giggled.

Zuko closed his eyes. His thoughts about girls he had had as a child were being proven every moment he spent in the presence of the Avatar's female companions and his sister's friend. They were weird.

Katara winced as she attempted to get comfortable. She hadn't moved from position near Zuko since she had woken up; Katara had only moved her head off of his arm. Zuko noticed her movements and the wince.

"Here." He gently took her arms and helped her adjust. Katara looked at him, slightly confused at his gentleness.

"Thanks, Zuko," she said softly, studying him. Before he could make a comment on her staring, she turned to Aang. "You wanted to tell me something the other day when we were working on your Waterbending. What was it?"

Aang looked up from the scroll he was studying. "Oh! Lookit what Toph showed me!" He pulled out some small rocks. "I wanted to show the bigger version, but this will have to do." He bent the rocks so that they were floating, touching each other. Then, he pulled back one and sent it back.

The three rocks in the middle didn't move, but the fourth one did. Aang smiled. "I'm not even bending them to that!" he said proudly.

Katara smiled. "That's cool, Aang." Katara didn't see it, but Aang nearly died from her praise.

"Stop flirting, Twinkle Toes," Toph whispered.

"What?" Aang asked, trying to play innocent and failing.

"You're not Sugar Queen's type," Toph said simply and went back to doing nothing. Aang rolled his eyes and sighed. Toph could be a little weird at times. (But then, most girls were.)

* * *

"Hey Katara, mind if I try cooking something? I think I've gotten better at cooking," Aang asked as he helped set up camp.

From her position on Appa's side, Katara looked at him. "Nothing big," was all she said before slowly getting comfortable. Sokka and Aang had refused to let her do much of anything.

"No cooking, no cleaning, no Waterbending, no yelling, no fighting, basically nothing that could cause you pain in any form, way, or fashion," Sokka had said when they had landed. "Aang, Toph, and I can do everything for once. And Zuko can help, if he wants," he had added with a look towards the Fire Prince. Saying nothing, Zuko stood and began to help. Sokka blinked at him, then turned to Katara.

"Is he the same guy who chased us for months?" he asked. Katara sighed in frustration.

"Doe he _look _like the same guy who chased us for months, Sokka?" she asked, waving a hand at Zuko. "He's been traveling with us for two weeks now and he hasn't once done anything evil."

"You never know, Katara," Sokka pointed out.

"You weren't the one who saw him in Ba Sing Se! He sure didn't seem evil there, and he's not evil now," his sister said.

"About that. How'd you find him?" Sokka looked at her expectantly.

Silently, Zuko sighed. The others knew that Jun's pet had attacked him, but only Katara knew what had been next to him as he lay on the ground. He hoped she wouldn't say anything.

"I followed the smoke and the crowd of people who wanted to know what had happened to the cabbage stand," Katara said simply.

"Uh-huh. And what possessed you to call us over and get him?"

Katara gulped slightly. "I, um, well you saw him! He was paralyzed and injured! I couldn't just walk on by and let him get killed!"

"You and your sympathy," Sokka muttered, shaking his head and walking on.

Zuko looked at Katara, who was glancing out the corner of her eye at him. Silently, he mouthed the words "Thank you". Katara nodded and settled back on Appa.

Ty Lee looked down from Appa's saddle. "Hey, could someone let me down? I kinda hafta do something!" Sokka rolled his eyes and nodded to Aang to bend her down. "Hey hey hey! Usually when I fly through the air, I have a trapeze bar to hold on to!"

"You were in the circus?" Aang asked excitedly. Sokka looked at him, and Aang blushed, muttering, "What?"

Sokka sighed and untied Ty Lee's legs. "Toph, make sure she doesn't try to run off."

"Got it." Toph turned to Ty Lee. "Okay, Pokey. Go take care of business, then come straight back. I can see where you are by the earth, so get any thoughts of going AWOL out."

Ty Lee rolled her eyes and dashed off to some trees. When she got back, Sokka retied her legs. "You're kinda cute, y'know that?" Ty Lee said absently.

"Wha…?" Sokka asked, dumbfounded. Katara and Aang cracked up. Even Zuko was having a hard time holding back his laughter at Sokka's look.

"I said you're kinda cute."

_Whump! _Sokka fell to the ground in shock. "Wha…? Huh?" Toph giggled.

"Sokka, I'm blind and I can still tell you look like an idiot," she informed him. Aang walked over and helped Sokka up.

"Close your mouth; you're going to catch bugs," he said. Sokka closed his mouth, and then opened it again to speak his mind about the whole scenario.

"It's not my fault some peppy, poking pink acrobat thinks I'm cute!" he said, walking away from Aang…

And walking straight into some tree.

He had done this just as Katara was taking a drink from one of the canteens, causing her face to go red as she tried not to spew water every where. Zuko noticed and started to laugh. Katara swallowed and joined in.

_She has a wonderful laugh,_ Zuko thought before shaking the very idea out of his head. Those types of thoughts were becoming more and more frequent and he had no idea why.


	9. Chapter 9

"Ah!" Katara's soft cry woke Zuko up.

"Is everything okay, Katara?" he whispered. It was early morning, even for Zuko. Katara blushed, embarrassed that she had woken him up.

"Yeah, I'm just stiff. Really stiff," she added, trying to move. "Sokka and Aang are being a bit overbearing, not letting me get up every so often. I'll get bed sores if I don't move, though."

Zuko jumped down off Appa and held his hand out to Katara. She took it and Zuko helped her to stand. "Have you been bleeding?" he asked.

"I can't see my back, so I have no clue." Zuko nodded, then looked at her, as if asking permission to look. Katara nodded and Zuko went behind her. Katara raised her shirt so the bandages were free.

"You need to have the bandages changed; I don't think it's bleeding, but my uncle said soldiers died from not having their bandages changed after the wound stopped bleeding."

Katara gasped. "Yuck." Zuko nodded and sat Katara back down on Appa.

"Do you want me to change them or wait for you brother or the Avatar?"

"How bad is it?"

He showed her a corner of the bandage. "You tell me."

"Could you go ahead and change them? Sokka would take forever to wake up," Katara said, sitting down. Zuko nodded and started looking for the canteens.

Momo was holding one like a stuffed bear and would not let go, no matter how hard Zuko pulled. Finally, Zuko reached for Sokka's boomerang and slipped it in place of the canteen.

"Sokka's not going be happy about that," Katara warned.

"Your point?" Katara giggled, but shook her head.

"Sokka's not so bad once you get to know him. Trust me, I've spent fourteen years getting to know him."

"You've spent fourteen years with him?" Zuko asked as he heated up the water in the flask. Katara nodded. "And you're still sane?"

Katara smiled. "Ask Sokka and he'll say I was never sane." Zuko looked at her. Katara saw his look and elaborated. "I've done some…weird things growing up."

"Like what?"

"I'd rather not say," Katara said hastily.

Zuko shrugged and used the water he had heated up to soak a rag. "Fine." If Katara was shocked that Zuko wasn't going push the matter, she didn't show it.

Slowly, Zuko undid the bandages around Katara's back. "This is probably going to sting a bit, but it needs to be to done," he warned her. Katara nodded. Zuko pressed the warm, wet rag to the blood on Katara's back.

"Agh!"

"I warned you."

"I know. It hurts, though," Katara muttered through gritted teeth.

"It could be worse," Zuko replied, gently washing the dried blood of Katara's skin.

"Good point." There was small pause. "Thanks, Zuko."

"For what? I haven't even finished washing the blood off."

"I know, but you're being gentle. I didn't know you knew how to be gentle."

"There's a lot you don't know about me," Zuko muttered darkly.

"I'd like to," Katara returned, looking at him out the corner of her eye.

"No, you don't. Trust me." With that, Zuko shut his mouth and didn't say another word until he finished. "There."

Katara felt her wound as best she could. "Thanks again, Zuko." Katara turned to smile at him. Something flickered around the edges of Zuko's lips, but died out before it could surface.

"You're welcome," Zuko muttered as he grabbed the old bandages. "Are these washable?" He showed the bandages to Katara.

"Probably not. Could you burn them?" Zuko nodded and went off to do as Katara had asked.

_What is going on with me? I'm actually helping some Waterbender!_

_Oh, you know why you're doing this._

_Not you again._

_I'm your conscience. I'm always there._

_Well, beat it._

_Can't. See, you, unlike your sister and father, were blessed with a conscience and a sense of right and wrong. That's why you spoke out._

_Am I supposed to be thankful?_

_Well, that's what most people feel._

_Just shut up. I'm not most people._

Zuko expected to hear a comeback from his "conscience", but heard nothing. He finished burning the bandages and headed back to camp.

Before he reached it, he heard voices that sounded strangely like Katara and her brother arguing. About him. He paused, ducking behind a bush to watch and listen.

"I can't believe you let him touch your back!"

"He was the only one awake, Sokka."

"Still. What if he poisoned the cut?"

Zuko looked up as Katara, who was sitting where he had left her on Appa, kicked at her brother. "Will you grow up? I trust Zuko not to hurt any of us."

"He made you say that."

"How? He's nowhere near here at the moment," Katara pointed out.

"He's brainwashed you. He-ow!" Sokka was hit in the head with a double water whip. "What was that for?"

"You're being a big baby, Sokka. Zuko's been with us for weeks now and has he so much as _looked _at any of in a threatening manner?"

"Actually…"

"Besides you."

Sokka paused. "No," he admitted reluctantly.

"And didn't he explain why he's running from his own father the other night? He told you he's a fugitive and you're _still_ being a jerk to him?" Sokka gulped.

"Katara, you should really calm down. You might cause your cut to reopen." It was a lame excuse, but Sokka was evidently scared of his sister's temper.

"I'll calm down when you grow up." With that, Katara crossed her arms and leaned back on Appa, clearing indicating that the argument was over.

"Sis…" Katara turned her head from Sokka, telling him she was going give the cold shoulder until he stopped being a jerk to Zuko. Sokka sighed and threw his hands up in the air, muttering something about "hormones" and "baby sisters always get their way". Zuko shook his head and entered the campsite.

Aang and Toph were packing up camp. "You don't want to know what happened between those two, Scarface," Toph said when she saw Zuko approaching her.

"How can you tell who's coming when you can't see?" Zuko asked. It was bugging him.

"I can see by the vibrations in the earth," Toph explained. "It may be in grays and all, but it's better than no sight at all."

Zuko had to agree with the Earthbender. The dim sight he got in his left eye now was better than the blindness he had had at first.

"Hey, could you help with this? It's pretty heavy," Aang called, struggling under the tent kits and Sokka's food supplies. Toph walked over and removed the food supplies. "Thanks. What did you remove?"

"The food, the heaviest thing we own." Aang laughed and Airbended the rest on Appa.

"Ready to go?" Everyone nodded and boarded Appa. Aang grabbed Katara as she was about fall.

"Whoa. Thanks, Aang." Katara smiled, nearly causing to fall over.

"Uh…um…you're welcome," Aang stammered, blushing slightly. Katara giggled and rolled her eyes as she got in the saddle. Zuko frowned and followed suit.

"Everyone seated? Good. Appa, yip yip!" Momo scampered to Aang's shoulder where he usually sat and held on as Appa took off.

Sokka spent the first half of the trip trying to get Katara to talk to him, but was failing horribly.

Zuko watched at Sokka's pathetic attempts, then turned to Katara after he stopped. "Why don't you just talk to the idiot already?"

"Because he's being a jerk," Katara said. Sokka gaped.

"Oh, you'll Prince Temperamental Firebender but not your own brother?" he exclaimed. Toph, who had been listening to the attempts at conversation, sighed.

"Maybe she likes him more than you, Snoozles," Toph teased. Sokka and Aang cringed.

"Eeewww…" Katara and Ty Lee laughed at their faces.

"What are you guys gonna do if I fall in love with someone not Water Tribe?"

"Kill him," Sokka said.

"Hope and pray you come to your senses before the wedding," Aang said at same time.

Ty Lee struggled against her bonds, but interjected, "What she falls in love with a Firebender?" Sokka and Aang looked at each other.

"Kill him," they said in unison.

"And like that's gonna happen, Pokey," Toph pointed out.

"Please stop calling me Pokey."

Toph shrugged. "Okay."

"Hey, you still call me Sugar Queen and Aang Twinkle Toes. Why won't you stop calling us those names?" Katara asked. Toph shrugged.

"You never asked." Zuko had to hide his laughter at the looks on Katara and Aang's faces.

"You mean, all we had to do was ask you stop calling us those names and you would have?" Aang asked incredulously.

"Except when I'm mad at you, yep." Toph reclined, resting her head on her hands. If she could see, she would have been inspecting her nails while Aang and Katara made weird faces at her.

"Well, will you stop, please?" Katara asked. Toph nodded.

"Sure. But Sokka's still Snoozles and Scarface is still Scarface," she said.

Zuko rolled his eyes. _Better than "Zuzu", at least, _he thought. Sokka didn't seem to think the same way.

"Hey!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Yes, Snoozles?"

"Stop calling me that!"

"Whatever you say, Snoozles."

Katara laughed and Aang gently closed Sokka's jaw.

"You really want to catch bugs, don't you?" he asked. Sokka looked at him, then collapsed with a groan.


	10. Chapter 10

It was nearing nightfall and Aang hadn't landed Appa yet. Ty Lee turned to Sokka.

"Isn't he going to land for camp?" Sokka shook his head.

"We've been getting very little ground covered since we left Ba Sing Se, so Aang's going to fly Appa from now until tomorrow night, then we'll camp," he explained. Ty Lee cocked her head, as did Momo.

"Do you do this often?"

"Pretty much." Sokka wasn't in a mood for talking, that was much was clear, but Ty Lee was determined.

"Don't you get tired?"

"Nope."

Behind them, Toph made a pathetic face and batted her eyelashes. Katara looked at Aang, who was having severe trouble keeping his laugh quiet. Zuko rolled his eyes.

"Really? Then you must have a lot of stamina," Ty Lee said with a flirting tone in her voice.

"If you're trying to get me to untie you, it won't work," Sokka said. Then he smiled proudly. "Though I do have a lot of stamina."

That did it. Toph, Aang, and Katara burst out laughing. Sokka looked at them and huffed.

"I don't see what's so funny," he pouted. That just caused his friends to laugh even harder.

Zuko's sleep was filled with the nightmares that plagued him from time to time. It started like the Agni Kai had actually happened; he was kneeling on the ground, refusing to fight his father. But there was where the similarities ended.

_Instead of merely scarring his son and banishing him, Ozai pulled his son's head back by the topknot and smirked in an evil way._

"_I don't think one scar will do it, and it makes you look lopsided." He pulled back, his fist on fire…_

"AHH!" Zuko sat up, sweating profusely. He took a few deep breaths to calm his labored breathing.

"Here." Someone handed him some water. Not caring who had given it to him, Zuko drank about half and dunked the other half over his head.

"Thank you," he murmured, drying his head off. He turned and saw it was Katara who had given him the water.

"No problem. Your tossing woke me up and then I realized that you were having a nightmare. A vivid one if your face was anything to go by," Katara whispered.

Zuko shut his eyes tightly. Now was not the time to show weakness! Now was not the time to act like a child!

"Do want to talk about it?"

"No," Zuko muttered, turning away. Katara rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Zuko…you can ask Aang, it actually helps to talk it out," she whispered. "He had awful nightmares almost every week before he told me about them. Now he only has them every once in a while."

"I don't need to talk it out," Zuko spat. Katara's hand left his shoulder.

"If you say so," she whispered. He heard her lie down on her sleeping bag, shifting to get comfortable. Zuko sighed and followed suit. He was almost asleep when his conscience hit again.

_You really need to stop shutting her out like that._

_Not you again! Can't you just let me be?_

_Now what kind of conscience would I be if I did that?_

_The kind that shows respect!_

_Consciences don't have to show respect, Zuzu._

_Don't you dare._

_Talk to Katara about your nightmare! Trust me on this._

_Will it get you to shut up?_

_For now, yes._

_Very well._

Zuko started tossing and turning, acting as though he was having another nightmare. He may have to talk to the girl about it, but he was not going to bring it up first.

"Zuko. Zuko, wake up," Katara whispered, shaking him gently. Having done this many times before to throw his uncle of the scent of sleepless nights, Zuko did a good job of "waking up". "You were having another nightmare." The Waterbender sounded genuinely concerned; Zuko hated making her worry. (Deep down, he wondered why he hated to make her worry.)

"I'm…fine," he muttered. Katara sighed.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"I…it's just history repeating itself then going wrong," Zuko said. _There, I told her about it. Happy?_

"Oh." Katara looked at her hands. "I get those a lot, too." Zuko frowned. "It's the raid on my village all over again, only I'm the only survivor. Instead of just my mom dying, it's everyone. Sokka, Dad, Gran-Gran…" Katara trailed off.

Unlike Zuko, Katara could open up. It was something that confused the Fire Prince. Just as he was about to ask Katara how she did it, he heard sniffs.

The Waterbender was crying.

Zuko, clueless about what else to do, put a hand on her shoulder. He felt her braid hit his hand, lifted by wind as Appa sailed on.

"I'm sorry," Katara mumbled. "I'm probably making you really uncomfortable."

"Um…it's…okay," Zuko replied, completely thrown. In truth, Zuko had never been more confused in his life and was too busy trying to figure Katara out to be uncomfortable.

Sometimes Zuko hated having normal human emotions, especially at this age.

Katara's sudden gasp snapped Zuko out of his reverie. "What's wrong?" he asked, strangely concerned.

"My bandage is caught on something and when I moved it hurt the cut," Katara gasped. Zuko sighed and gently detached Katara's bandage from the tip of one of his swords that had been sticking out.

"There." Katara moved around and smiled in the dim light of dawn. They had been awake for hours and not known it. Sokka's snores got a lot louder, which they always seemed to do before someone woke him up. Momo's tail started twitching, Aang started muttering from Appa's head, and Toph started to kick. All were telltale signs of waking up in the little group. (Or, in the case of Sokka, feigning sleep until there was a meal ready.) Ty Lee, still tied, couldn't really do anything in the way of stretching before waking up.

Appa groaned, causing Aang to wake up. "Okay boy, we'll stop soon so you can eat and we can all stretch."

"Don't forget bathroom breaks," Sokka said, his voice muffled by sleep and blankets.

"Do you plan on staying awake?" Aang asked, rubbing his eyes and smiling. Sokka replied by promptly taking snoring to a completely new level of volume.

Katara had to cover he mouth to stifle her laughter. "I can't believe Sokka woke up just to remind you we need bathroom breaks!" she said to Aang. The young Avatar merely snickered and got an evil look in his eye.

Zuko noticed the look. "Do I want to know what you are about to do to him?" he asked. Aang smirked.

"No."

Aang slowly bent water from one of the flasks and bent it near Sokka's ear, making it go up and down in waves. Sokka fidgeted for a few minutes, trying to ignore the sound of splashing water, then sat bolt upright. Before he could clear the sleep from his eyes, Aang had replaced the water and acting as though he had done nothing.

"Aang, we need to stop _now!_" Katara giggled as Sokka look around furtively.

"Why?"

"I feel like I just got of the Spirit World after being there for twenty-four hours again," he said. Aang nodded, watching Sokka's face out of the corner of his eye.

"Appa, down boy." Appa groaned and landed on a small grove of trees. Sokka groaned.

"Not on the trees, Appa, _next _to them." Sokka scrambled to get out of his blankets and ran off.

Ty Lee, who had woken up when Sokka had unbundled himself, watched Sokka. "Where's he going?"

Aang and Katara looked at each other, then broke out in laughter.

Zuko shook his head and held it in his hand. He was traveling with a twelve-year-old prankster and his friends. He'd lost it.

I'm sorry if Zuko's a little OOC in this chapter. I sorta needed put in _something _that would make Katara worry more about Zuko for fluff later on, so this came up. Be truthful and tell me what you think.


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry for the delay. Well, here's chapter 11.

Nighttime came eventually and the group landed to get camp ready. Zuko jumped down, then motioned for Katara to climb down. The Waterbender looked over at him, then slowly got down, slipping on the fur and nearly falling

"Gotcha," Zuko grunted as he caught her. Katara blushed and stood.

"Thanks," she muttered. Zuko waited for her to leave his arms, but if anything, Katara seemed reluctant to.

At that precise moment, something sharp and shiny zipped by, ripping Katara's bandages. She screamed, collapsing against Zuko's chest.

"We're under attack!" Ty Lee, who was still on Appa, looked out.

"It's Azula and Mai." She grimaced. "Looks like they've got a replacement for me."

"Got that right." The sound of Jun's cold voice rang out in the trees.

"Oh shi…take mushrooms," Toph muttered. "RUN, TWINLKE TOES! RUN!"

Aang needed no second bidding. Sokka, who had just come back from looking for firewood dropped it and ran over to Appa. "Hurry, Toph!" both boys cried. Toph nodded, sent a large boulder in the girls' general direction, then ran to Appa.

Zuko struggled to get Katara back on Appa. "She…got me again," she gasped, wincing at every movement.

"Yes, yes, I know," Zuko murmured, trying to calm down the Waterbender. He handed her to her brother, jumping up after him.

Appa didn't Aang's cry of "Yip yip!" to get going. With a groan, Appa took off. Before leaving, though, both he and Momo left rather smelly presents for the three girls.

Ty Lee giggled. "Azula's gonna _love _that…" The sound of Katara crying turned her attention to where the Waterbender lay.

Both Sokka and Zuko were inspecting the newly reopened wound. "It looks bad," Sokka muttered. Zuko, agitated that Katara's brother could only state the obvious, nodded.

"Y'know, if you untie me, I could check it out a little better than you two could," Ty Lee said. Zuko nodded and reached over to untie her.

"I don't think so." Zuko looked at Sokka.

"Ty Lee could tell us if Katara is seriously injured and you're _still _being a stubborn Water peasant?" he asked, trying hard to hide his disbelief and anger.

"She could run off and tell your sister," Sokka said simply. At that moment, a small rock hit him in the back of his head. "Ow! Toph, what was that for?"

"You're being an idiot, Snoozles! Zuko, untie Ty Lee and ignore Sokka," Toph ordered. "I do." Sokka's mouth hung open; Zuko took Toph's advice and ignored him.

Ty Lee stretched after she was freed. "Good," she said, perky as ever. Sokka rolled his eyes, but scooted over to allow Ty Lee access to his sister, who was whimpering in pain.

"Well? Is it poisoned? Infected? Is she okay?" Sokka asked, concern erasing his paranoia.

"I think she'll be fine. It doesn't look poisoned or anything other extremely painful," Ty Lee said. Katara gave her a look of relief. "But it needs to be cleaned and better bandages would be useful. And we should definitely camp."

"We can't yet," Aang pointed out. "That bounty hunter's pet whatchamacallit can find people by follow scents, and Appa and Momo left something full of scent for them to follow."

"I think Jun's pet will have a hard time trying to sort through the stink, let alone trace it," Zuko muttered. Ty Lee and Toph nodded in agreement. Suddenly, Ty Lee turned to Zuko.

"Hey, what happened to your uncle? I haven't seen him in a while. Azula said he was traveling with you, but obviously he's not." She motioned to show the obvious lack of Iroh. Zuko frowned and turned away.

"We got separated in Ba Sing Se," he said. "I don't know what happened to him." _But I think I do, _he thought. Ty Lee, totally oblivious to the depressing thoughts in Zuko's head, merely nodded.

"I'm sure he's fine. Could you heat up some water so someone can clean her back?" Ty Lee asked, nodding towards Katara.

"Her name is Katara, and yes, I will," Zuko replied. Why he corrected Ty Lee, he didn't know, but he shrugged it off and heated up the canteen Ty Lee handed him. Toph was digging in the bags for something.

"Here." She handed Zuko a small open-ended gourd. "Pour the water in there." Zuko muttered his thanks and dumped the warm water into the container. He reached for a rag.

"Hold it," Sokka said. "Whaddya think you're doing?"

"Washing your sister's back," Zuko said. "What does it look like?" He then proceeded to clean Katara's wound.

Sokka was about to protest Zuko touching his sister and any way, but Katara looked at him.

"Sokka, shut up before I get Momo to hurt you! Zuko'll be gentle; I don't mind him helping."

When Katara said that, Zuko realized something. He liked it (though he would never admit it aloud) when Katara showed trust in him. The only ones who had ever done that were his mother and his uncle. Zuko's subconscious decided to make an effort to earn, and truly deserve, her trust.

"OW!"

Katara's screech nearly deafened Zuko. "Was that really unavoidable?"

"That hurt!"

"It should. The water has to be hot enough to kill any infection and the herbs probably cause a stinging sensation when they make contact with your open wound," he said matter-of-factly.

It was almost half an hour after Mai's shuriken had hit Katara and the wound still was not clean enough to be wrapped, or so said Ty Lee. Zuko had been gently washing the wound for the entire thirty minutes, throughout Sokka's glares and the infernal stink of the perfume the two uninjured girls had dumped on Momo's entire body and Appa's rear end. (_That_ smelled worse than the unwashed bodies of Zuko's old crew.) Aang was looking for a place to land that no one could reach without a boat.

"Where exactly are we going?" Toph asked

"Some place where not even those creepy lizards that walk on water could reach us!" Aang said.

"Better find an island at least one hundred and ten yards away from the shore then," Ty Lee said, absently batting at Sokka's wolf-tail. "Giant basilisk lizards can go that far on water."

"Stop that!" Sokka complained, jerking his head away from Ty Lee.

"I think it looks kinda cool," Ty Lee said. "Plus I'm bored."

"What did you do when you were traveling with Princess Evil and the Despondent Ninja?" Toph asked. She was warming up (somewhat) to this perky pink acrobat.

"Oh, practiced my flips, messed with Mai's weapons, played with the lizards…" Ty Lee said casually.

"You actually played with those things?" Sokka asked. "Are you crazy?"

"No, just easily entertained," Zuko replied. Ty Lee stuck her tongue out at him. "Back at the palace, she would…" Zuko paused. "Flip cartwheels, get pushed in one of the ponds by Azula when she did a flip better than her, and play with the turtle-ducks when I wasn't in the gardens. Then she'd annoy me, tease Mai, mess with Mai's training weapons, annoy me, play with the young lizards, annoy me, pester my cousin, annoy me, and annoy me," Zuko finished, not looking up from Katara's back.

"I'm noticing a pattern," Aang said, chuckling. Toph lounged.

"It's so easy to annoy Scarface though. And kinda fun!" Toph laughed.

Ty Lee was smiling as she looked Katara's wound over. "I think you can wrap it now, Zuko." The acrobat turned to Sokka. "Where are the bandages?"

Sokka tossed her the bundle of bandages. "This is all we have until we can stop at a shop or herbalist," he explained. Ty Lee nodded and handed them to Zuko.

Slowly, the fugitive Fire Prince helped sit Katara up. "This is going to hurt some more," he warned.

"I'm getting used to it," Katara replied as dryly as she could. As she made movements to revel the rest of her midriff, Sokka stopped her.

"Hold it! I don't think so, not while he's watching," Sokka said, nodding to Zuko. Katara rolled her eyes.

"Zuko's the only one who can wrap bandages properly, dear, lovable, paranoid brother of mine," she pointed out.

"Let…uh, what's her name again? Sokka asked, pointing to Ty Lee. The girl giggled.

"Ty Lee. But I am absolutely hopeless in wrapping bandages," she said with a crestfallen look, a first for the perky acrobat. Zuko noticed Sokka look at Ty Lee differently and smirked inwardly. Ty Lee was not only a great acrobat; she was a grade-A flirt and actress. In reality, she was a perfectly adequate medic, capable of wrapping bandages just fine. Why she was refusing to do so was beyond Zuko, but she was flirting (in his opinion) shamelessly with Katara's brother. And he was starting to fall for it, Zuko could tell.

Katara turned her head to meet Zuko's eyes for a moment, and mimicked giggling. She could tell that Ty Lee was flirting and thought it funny. Zuko shook his head, rolled his eyes in agreement, and began to wrap Katara's back.

It didn't take nearly as long to wrap the wound as it did to clean it, so Zuko finished quickly. Suddenly, Momo, who had been sitting next to him, screeched and jumped on his head.

"Dumb lemur," Zuko muttered. "You're lucky I don't fry you."

"Poor Momo," Katara said, gently prying the lemur from Zuko's head. "He's scared of something."

"There's an island down below," Aang informed his friends. "I'm taking Appa down."

"Fine. I'm beat," Sokka said with a stretch.

"You're always beat, Sokka," Aang pointed out. The warrior shrugged.

"So?" The small group on the bison laughed.


	12. Chapter 12

"I don't like the looks of this place."

"Is that you talking or instincts, Sokka?"

"Both, sis."

Katara, who was using Ty Lee and Zuko as supports (the wound made it painful to walk without help), rolled her eyes. "At least Aang didn't land near the city. It was crawling with pirates."

"Are you still afraid of pirates?"

"You try being attacked by them and then running into Zuko when he was still after us and see how long you're freaked out by pirates," Katara retorted. Behind her back, Ty Lee made a show of confusion. Zuko shook his head, telling her not to ask.

"We should camp soon," Zuko reminded the others. "Katara shouldn't walk too much at the moment."

Sokka seemed offended that the fugitive Firebender seemed to know more about his sister's condition that he did, but agreed. "He's right, Aang. Let's find a clearing and camp. Can anyone other than my sister cook?" Ty Lee raised her hand.

"Back in school, I was the best in cooking lessons. Azula wasn't too happy about having to take them, so she really didn't mind I was a lot better than her at it," she said.

"Just what can you cook?"

"Anything and everything. Fish in at least a hundred different ways, beef, pork, any of the varieties of fowl and poultry, and even octopus and squid," Ty Lee listed. Sokka was drooling with hunger.

"Let's hurry up! I'm hungry!" Sokka ran off to find a clearing. Katara and Toph started laughing uproariously.

"I think you just found the way to my brother's heart, Ty Lee," Katara told her. Ty Lee blushed slightly.

"Shush."

Sokka had found a perfect little clearing, the bend of a river breaking into a grove of moon peach trees. "Moon peaches!" Ty Lee squealed with happiness. "I _love _moon peaches!"

Sokka cocked his head. "You actually eat those slivery, fuzzy things?" Ty Lee laughed as she and Zuko set Katara down.

"You don't eat the skin; you peel it first." A loud ripping sound from behind her caused Ty Lee to jump.

Appa had found the peaches and was eating them. Momo chirruped and grabbed one. Aang laughed. "Favorite fruits," he explained.

Toph sighed and sat down next to Katara. "Are Pokey and your brother flirting still?"

"Ty Lee is, I know. Not so sure about Sokka," Katara whispered back.

"Betcha something it's only a matter of three weeks before he starts flirting back."

"You're on. If he starts after three weeks, I win. What're we betting?"

"A dare. I win, you have you to do what I dare you to, and vice versa." Toph grinned. Katara nodded and returned her grin, though Toph couldn't see it."'

"Deal." Toph smirked and stuck her hand out for Katara to shake. Katara took it and the two giggled.

It was nighttime and Zuko was having a hard time sleeping. Something was nagging at the back of his mind and preventing sleep. Finally, Zuko gave up trying and sat up, detangling himself from the blankets.

The moon peaches were glowing dimly in the light of the full moon, as were the silver tinted leaves.

Some of the leaves fell, drawing Zuko's attention to where Katara lay on her side. The fallen leaves had landed in her hair, down and framing her face in a way that (when combined with the leaves) astounded the ex-prince.

_She's…_

_Beautiful?_

_Not you _again!

_Yes, me again. Consider me a parasite or a nagging mother-in-law. I will never leave you. But now, I'll leave you to your thoughts._

The more Zuko heard this annoying voice, the more certain he was that it was most definitely not justhis conscience. He had heard from his uncle that everyone had a spiritual guide, even if they didn't hear it. In cases such as Azula and Ozai it was missing completely, though, for the most part, it silently guided you to do what needed to be done.

Why couldn't Zuko have had a silent one?

At that moment, Katara stirred, shaking the leaves from her hair. "Zuko, is that you?" she mumbled.

"Yes. Is something wrong?" Zuko knelt by Katara, slightly worried. Katara shook her head, straining to reach her back.

"No. I just hurt. Badly." Zuko smiled slightly as he helped Katara sit upright.

"You were attacked with a shuriken twice in less than two weeks; of course you're going to hurt badly," he pointed out. Katara rolled her eyes.

"Hush. I know that; let me complain," she muttered.

"You girls do that too much as it is."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"My sister, her friends, Toph, and you all seem to have one thing in common. Two, actually. Complaints and bossiness," Zuko taunted. He got water whipped in response to his comment. "And a sadist streak," he added.

"I am not a sadist! I hate causing pain, unless it's absolutely necessary. I'll fight, yeah, but I don't like to cause permanent pain, like broken bones, sprained ankles, et cetera."

"You're better at healing them," Zuko agreed, rubbing the ankle he had sprained. Katara smiled softly, and leaned back gently.

A cracking twig startled the two teens and Momo, who was sleeping on a nest made of fallen peach limbs nearby.

"What's that?" Katara muttered, obviously spooked. She reached for Zuko's hand and took it.

"Sounded like someone nearby," the Firebender replied, not caring that the girl had his hand in a death grip (or so it seemed).

Tall and slender, the being who had snapped the twig emerged from the woods on the other side of the river bend. "Oh, Jala forsake it all!" it muttered. The figure bent down, very oblivious to the fact that Katara and Zuko were staring at it.

"Jala? Water Goddess?" Zuko whispered to Katara.

"I think so. Never heard of her before, though," the young Waterbender admitted shyly.

"Who's there? I heard voices." The figure, who was clearly a woman, looked up. "Show yourselves or you will have one very unhappy Master Waterbender on your hands."

Zuko lit up his palm. "Don't worry; no one here wants to hurt you. My friend and I are the only two up," he replied. In his peripheral vision, he saw Katara blush at the word "friend". He ignored it.

"Like a group of kids could hurt me," the woman scoffed. She was clearly Water Tribe; all she was wearing was blue. Her loose top fell just below her waist, while her tight pants stopped a few inches above her ankles. "I don't care if one is a Firebender. I've face Masters before and kicked their sorry butts."

"Who are you?" Katara asked. The woman turned to her.

"Oh, thank you! A Water Tribeswoman. Wait…" She paused and looked at Katara, then Zuko, then back to Katara. "Are you two…promised?"

Zuko looked at Katara, who shared his look of surprise. "Uh…no, ma'am," he replied.

"Ma'am? Boy, you make me sound like my mother. I'm only twenty-four. The name's Lakai, currently a traveling healer and herbalist."

"Currently?"

"Temporary occupation," Lakai said with a casual wave of her hand. "Any of you need healing?"

Katara looked at Zuko. "Do we trust her?" she mouthed.

"You decide; it's your back," he mouthed back.

"Can you heal with water?"

Lakai rolled her eyes. "Of course. I'm a female Waterbender."

What that had anything to do with it, they didn't know, but Katara merely shrugged and continued. "Could you heal a shuriken wound?"

"Sure, but I'd have to take you to the tents. All my lotions and such are back there," the young woman explained. "Plus, I've got leftover dinner."

"Did someone mention dinner?" Sokka mumbled from his sleeping bag. "Good. I'm hungry."

"Sokka, you ate less than two hours ago," Katara pointed out.

"I'm still hungry."

Lakai chuckled. "Let me guess; teenaged boy?" Katara nodded and rolled her eyes. "Well, if you'd like me to heal you, get your friends and any beasts of burden and follow me. I'll wait."

Katara and Zuko set about getting the others up to follow the new Waterbender. When Aang got Appa up, Lakai's eyes went big.

"That is what I call a beast of burden," she muttered. She looked around. "Ready? Follow me."


	13. Chapter 13

Lakai led them to a smaller clearing with several tents surrounding it. Snores were emitting from one tent, while smells of herbs came from two others. There were two more, one clearly a makeshift operating room, and one which uses were unknown.

"Here. Lay down on that bed so I can reach the wound" the healer said, opening a tent flap. Sokka stopped his sister.

"Hold it!" He studied Lakai as best he could in the semi dark. (Even with faltering light from a lantern, it was hard to see.) "If you're a healer, why didn't you heal Katara right there?"

Without batting an eyelid, as though she was used to these questions, Lakai replied, "I would have, but she said so herself that it was a shuriken wound. Those can be really deep and I'd like to check it before I heal it."

"We could have started a fire."

"No offense, but this is as close to clean as I can get," Lakai replied. "Here, I know the sheets are clean and the water hot. Plus, I've got lotions and such that will help her after I heal the wound. Her back's gonna be really sore after this."

That explanation sat well with Sokka, and he allowed Katara to lay down. "Um, I think it'd be best if you two," Lakai said, motioning to Aang and Zuko, "left while I heal. She's gonna have to remove her shirt so I can get to the wound better." Aang started to protest.

"She's my Waterbending teacher! I've seen her without her blouse on."

"I don't care. I have rules that must be adhered to when I'm healing. Only people of the same sex and relatives can be in the tent if some article of clothing must be removed," the healer replied, losing the casual air she had had before. "Or fiancées," she added, looking pointedly at Zuko. "Now, unless you fit that description, get out."

She said that last part with such venom that Aang and Zuko scrambled out. "I've never seen a Waterbender so angry before," Aang muttered to Zuko.

"Unless you count Katara trying to kill me before…all this," the Firebender replied, "neither have I. I thought only Firebenders had tempers or passions that big."

The two boys waited outside, listening to Katara gasp when Lakai first touched the wound. They both winced; Katara started muttering a lot of words no one (not even Sokka) knew she knew. In the flickering lantern light (which was growing progressively dimmer), they saw Katara turn her head and look at Lakai with what must have been a death glare.

"Hmm. Whoever cleaned this wound knew what they were doing," Lakai said, totally ignoring Katara's insults and threats. Zuko felt a surge of pride at her comment. It was nice to know that his work was appreciated. "Though the bandages are a little on the shabby side.

"We ran out," Sokka replied from inside the tent. "Can you hurry?"

"Yeah. I'm tired," Katara added in, yawning."

"Hold ya ostriches, I'm goin' as fast as I can," she said, sounding a little like the Swamp Hicks.

"I never heard a Waterbender that sounds like you. Just where are you from?" Toph asked.

"Me? My mom and dad where born in the Northern Water Tribe, but dumped the place after my grandparents tried to marry them off to someone else. They ran off and found a tribe of swampy Waterbenders that could legally marry them," Lakai began. As far as Aang and Zuko could tell from outside, she was healing the wound. "They then went on to Omashu, before the Fire Nation took it, and had me. We lived there for about three years before we moved again, this time to a port city. When you live in a place for fifteen years, you take on their speech mannerisms."

"Huh?

"Y'start talkin' like them. Geez. Is he this stupid naturally?"

"I think so, but Sugar Queen and Twinkle Toes say he's had his moments of genius," Toph replied.

"Really?" There was a moment's pause, and then Lakai spoke up a little louder. "Can the big, tall Firebender with the scar come in here? I need his help?"

"I'm right here!" Sokka pointed out.

"You don't look strong enough. He did." Zuko rolled his eyes and entered the tent.

"Could you lift her?" Lakai pointed to Katara, who now had her shirt back on. "I need to change the sheets."

"Why? There's not much, if any, blood on them," Ty Lee pointed out.

"I'm a neat freak," Lakai explained. Ty Lee nodded. Zuko shrugged and carefully hoisted Katara up. Lakai ripped off the sheets and put new ones on the small collapsible cot. "Okay."

Katara winced slightly as Zuko put her down. "If you healed it, why am I still wincing?"

"I closed the wound. The muscles might be sore for a few days. That's what my lotions and heated oils are for," the older Waterbender explained. "I've got room in my two herb tents for you guys, if you want. They hold two sleeping people apiece."

"Thanks, we'd love to stay. For the night, at least," Aang said, adding that last part in at Zuko's glare. (Even in semi-dark, the young Avatar knew when the Firebender was glaring.)

"Great. So, who's sleeping where?" Lakai asked.

"Well, I can share with Toph," Aang offered. "If she doesn't want to make an Earthbended tent."

"I'll make one and we can share. Whatsername needs to sleep somewhere." Toph paused. "I say we let Ty Lee and Snoozles share," she added innocently.

"Then big guy over here is in here with…what's your name again?"

"Katara." The said Waterbender reached for the water cup by the bed. Zuko handed it to her.

"Why do you keep making comments about my height?" Zuko asked. Lakai looked at him and snorted.

"I'm barely over five feet and probably weigh just over a hundred pounds. T'me, you're huge," she replied. Katara smiled.

"Hear that, Toph? Someone who's actually shorter than you. Or, at least, she will be, once you stop growing," she added as an afterthought. The young Earthbender hadn't quite bloomed yet.

"Shut it, Sugar Queen."

Sokka raised his hand. "Do I get a say in where I sleep? Cause, I'd really like to sleep on Appa."

"It's going to start raining soon; I wouldn't. And who's Appa?"

"My bison," Aang explained. "How do you kno-o-o-ow it's gonna rain?" His yawn interrupted his sentence.

"I've lived in costal areas most of my life. Trust me," Lakai said.

No sooner had she said that did rain start beating on the tent. "I don't want Katara sharing a tent with Z-" Zuko's hand covered Sokka's mouth.

"Hmm?"

"…With some hormonal teenager that's not her brother," Sokka finished, taking Zuko's glare to mean, "give her my name and I'll kill you".

Katara sighed. The night was catching up to her and she was sleepy. "I don't care who I share a tent with. I'm tired and stiff and you're being stubborn. Just agree to whatever they say and wake me up in the morning." She yawned and carefully rolled over, her back to the others.

Her yawn set off a whole chain, pushing the will to argue out of Sokka's mind. "Fine. He can sleep…" Sokka's words trailed off into soft snores.

Ty Lee giggled softly and poked Sokka awake. He looked around, then left, pink acrobat behind him.

"G'night," Aang muttered, leaving. Toph nodded her good nights and followed Aang, muttering when she felt the rain on her hair.

"See ya in the morning," Lakai said, and ducked out of the tent.

Zuko sighed and looked at Katara, who stirred.

"Who's there?" she asked groggily.

"It's me, Zuko."

"Zuko? Oh, good. I was hoping you'd stay." With that, Katara went back to sleep.

Good? She was happy he was sharing a tent with her? Or was that just the tiredness talking? Either way, Zuko was exhausted. He collapsed on the other cot and fell asleep shortly after.

I may have mentioned to a few that I was planning a sequel after I finish this. I might just combine both stories and make a companion instead, haven't decided. Anyway, don't forget to reveiw! (Please? I love reveiws!)


	14. Chapter 14

Gahh, my breaks weren't working! So, the zero/period combo is my break until the lines work.

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Zuko woke up the next morning to the smell of something cooking. Had he really slept in or was Lakai just an early riser? He rolled off of the cot and looked over at Katara; she still slept soundly.

Careful not to wake her, Zuko exited the tent. Lakai was talking to someone else by the fire.

"Are you sure this water's hot enough?" The voice that spoke caused Zuko to stop and stare.

"Miss Lakai, I'm sure it's hot enough. What I'm not sure about is these being the right plants," Iroh said.

"Uncle?" Iroh jerked his head around at Zuko's voice.

"Zuko?" he asked, dropping the leaves he had been holding. Lakai looked at Zuko, then at Iroh, and back again,

"You two know each other?"

"This is my nephew, the one I told I had been separated from in Ba Sing Se," Iroh explained.

"What's goin' on?" a very groggy Ty Lee asked, coming out of her tent. "Oh! General Iroh!" she exclaimed upon noticing him. "Nice to know that Azula didn't kill you."

"Azula? Isn't she some insane Firebending princess?" Lakai asked. Then she paused. "Zuko...as in Prince Zuko?" Iroh nodded.

Zuko expected the woman to scream and panic, but instead she just shrugged. "You could have said something last night. Y'mind waking up your other companions?"

"I want to hear what happened to my uncle first," Zuko insisted. He was a little shocked by Lakai's acceptance, but didn't show it. After the events of the past few months, he was surprised anything shocked him.

"That can be explained in due time, Zuko," Iroh said. "Like over a hot meal and tea." Zuko rolled his eyes and reentered his tent.

She looked so peaceful that Zuko was reluctant to wake Katara up. She seemed at peace in her sleep, not determined to help Aang at whatever cost, as she was awake. She had a soft smile on her lips, and was talking in her sleep.

"Really? That's nice…" Suddenly, she rolled over and faced Zuko, awake.

"You need to get up, Katara," Zuko murmured.

"No. Don't wanna," Katara mumbled, sounding like a young child. "I forgot how good a real bed feels."

"Katara, you're sleeping on a cot. I hardly call that a real bed," Zuko joked. He reached out and brushed a loose strand of hair from Katara's face.

"When you compare sleeping on the ground, in Appa's saddle, and not sleeping at all, a cot is like a feather bed covered with silk sheets and sinfully soft pillows scented with moon peach blooms and snow lotuses," Katara retorted. Zuko raised his eyebrow.

"And have you ever slept in a bed like that?"

"Do dreams count?"

"Not really. And why would you dream of a bed?" Zuko asked.

"The bed's just part of the dream. I was in some giant house, more of a palace, really. There was silk all over the place, but the bed stuck out, for obvious reasons," Katara explained. "It was round and there were all these balconies in the room. It was wonderful." She sighed that lovesick sigh that girls often sighed when they were daydreaming about a boy or something. Zuko bet if she had a pillow, Katara would have hugged it.

"Do you want breakfast?" Zuko asked, ignoring the look on Katara's face. Katara nodded and got up.

"Aah! Stiff back!" Katara's hands flew to her lower back and she arched, trying to get the soreness out. "A little help would useful here!"

Zuko smirked and heated his hand up to a comfortable temperature, placing it on Katara's back. He eased the stiff muscles, placing his other hand on Katara's shoulder to make sure she didn't fall back (or so he told himself).

"Ready?" he asked, removing his hand. Katara nodded and exited the tent, Zuko following.

"Do you want to wake your brother or do I do it?" Zuko asked. Katara pointed to Ty Lee.

"I say we let Ty Lee do it. Hey, Ty Lee!"

The acrobat looked up from her breakfast. "Yeah?"

"Wanna to have fun?"

"Sure!" Ty Lee bounded up. "What do you want me to do?"

Katara had an evil look in her eyes. "Can you go wake up my brother?"

"How is that fun?"

"Because, as his sister, I'm giving permission to wake him up anyway possible. Slapping, kissing…" Ty Lee perked up and dashed into the tent.

"That's mean, Katara," Zuko pointed out, all attempts at hiding his grin futile. Katara snickered.

"I'm his baby sister; I can get away with that," retorted Katara as she went to wake Aang and Toph.

Zuko had the feeling that his uncle was giving him one of those annoying, know-it-all looks. He turned around, and, sure enough, Iroh was giving him a look. Zuko looked at him as if to say "what?" Iroh smirked and shook his head, turning back to his tea, wincing when he jolted his wounded side.

"AAAAHHHH!" Sokka came running out from his tent, shirtless and hair a mess. "She…she…she…." He couldn't get a sentence out.

Toph, who had just woken up, turned to where she felt Ty Lee. "What did you do to him?"

Ty Lee giggled. "Kissed him."

Everyone, even Appa and Momo, starting laughing. "You did what?" Aang, just woken up, asked between chuckles.

"Katara gave me permission to wake him up any way possible, so I did," she replied, a smirk on her perky face.

"Katara, never do that again!" Sokka cried, realizing he was half-naked and running back into the tent to finish getting dressed.

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"Okay, so can someone explain to me what's happened and how you guys know each other?" Lakai asked as she dished out breakfast.

Everyone started talking at once. "Sorry I asked," the healer muttered. "Tell me one at a time. You." She pointed to Aang.

So, Aang told her about the iceberg and the various adventures. Toph explained how she had met the group and Zuko explained what happened to him after Ba Sing Se. Then, for the benefit of his nephew and traveling companions, Iroh explained.

"I wasn't dead when Azula attacked me again, merely unconscious," he began. "I was out for out for several hours before I regained my senses in Miss Lakai's care. She had healed my wounds as best she could before I woke up. Did you know that some Waterbenders, in particularly lady Waterbenders, could heal with their bending?"

Zuko looked towards Katara, who blushed. "Yes, Uncle. Continue."

Iroh nodded, taking more tea. "Miss Lakai said that it was for the better if I travel with her. 'I'm heading to a peninsula in the south; we might find your nephew or word of him', she said."

"Peninsula? I thought this was an island?" Katara said. Lakai nodded.

"During the spring and early summer it is, when the water floods the narrow neck. But rest assured, it's a peninsula," she explained. "Let Iroh finish."

"Thank you. Where was I?"

"Traveling with me."

"Oh yes. Anyway, Miss Lakai was not able to heal me completely, but she made it so I didn't feel old every time I moved."

"But aren't you old?" Toph asked.

"Old_er, _young miss, and it's nice to see that you do have traveling companions," Iroh quipped. Toph smiled.

"Thank you, and you're right; you're nephew is S-T-U-B-B-O-R-N!"

"Watch it, Toph," Zuko warned. He would have glared, but it would have been lost on the blind Earthbender.

"Well, I'm right."

Sokka, who was busy trying to eat breakfast, rolled his eyes and noticed the spare tent. "Hey, what's that for?"

"What?" Lakai turned to the spare tent. "Oh, that's my shrine. Incense, candles, statuettes, embroidered words of prayer, you name it. I'm extremely spiritual," she explained. "If it's spirit, god, or goddess, I'll pray to it. Even the evil ones, but only when I try to exact revenge on someone."

"Then who's Jala? Zuko and I heard you mention her last night," Katara said, rubbing her stiff back.

"Water Goddess of Sea Faring Travelers, according to what my mother told me. Most Water Tribe people don't know about her, since they really don't travel much," Lakai said. "Zuko, in the tent you slept in last night is a purple vial filled with will smell like really strong grape scented alcohol. Go get it, please."

"So you pray to all the spirits and whatnot?" Ty Lee asked. "Even Agni?"

"Err, not him so much. Can y'blame me?" Lakai said as Zuko stood and entered the tent.

"Purple vial…there's a lot of purple vials here," he muttered, looking for the bottle. He grabbed the first one and uncorked it. "Eww. That's not it." He corked it and reached for the next one. It smelled of a melon. "Nope."

"Need some help?" Zuko jumped at Katara's voice. The young Waterbender smiled. "They're talking about the best way to cook a flying halibut. I'm allergic to halibut."

"Flying halibut?"

"A fish that has gills it can flare out like wings. I'm allergic to it, so I came to help you find that oil," she said.

"Is that what it's supposed to be?" Katara nodded and reached for a vial. "I've checked that one. Smells like almonds."

The two spent at least half an hour looking for the right vial. Finally, Katara found it when she stubbed her foot on it.

"What's it made from, crystal?" she muttered as she followed Zuko out.

"I still say to skin it first then remove the wings. They come off easier," Lakai was saying.

"But that's a big mess!" Sokka retorted.

"Are you still talking about flying halibut?" Katara asked.

"No. Hens and chickens of any type," Lakai responded. "Oh, you've found the oil. Good. Zuko can you heat it up in…that bowl? Katara, you'll need to lie down on a cot if you want someone to rub that oil in. It'll help your back."

"What's it made from?" Toph asked, smelling the tan liquid. "I haven't smelled anything like that before."

"A special blend of herbs and perfect grapes. Y'know the grapes that are round and firm skinned, bursting with flavor? Those grapes. I think I ate more than I put in when I was making that stuff," Lakai added as an afterthought.

Zuko rolled his eyes as he proceeded to heat up the oil. Katara sighed and went back into the tent. "I'll be waiting," she called over her shoulder. Briefly, Zuko thought of the other meaning that sentence could hold, but shook his head as he completed his task.

About five minutes later, Lakai came over to Zuko. "Could you help Katara with that oil? I know I said I'm strict with my rules, but someone has to go with those guys to the market to make sure they don't do something stupid, and Toph'll need help keeping Sokka back from the meat stalls. Tell Katara I asked you to."

"Do I have a choice?" Zuko muttered.

"Unless you want uncle to buy out every cheap tea stall in Port Len Sung, no," Lakai replied.

Zuko sighed. "Fine. Please make sure Uncle doesn't buy any statuettes, tea, porcleian, or even cheap glass. He will do that," Zuko warned. Lakai smiled.

"I know. I've traveled with him for about a month now; never let your uncle into a market unsupervised. Be back soon." Zuko shook his head and entered the tent.

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You know my fics are gonna be long if I get to chapter fourteen and little fluff has been shown. (I'm home sick today, so I've got plenty of time to type.) Next chapter will be fluffier.


	15. Chapter 15

When Zuko entered the tent, Katara was in the process of removing her blouse. She turned when she heard someone enter. "Ahh! I thought Lakai was gonna do this," she said, using her shirt to cover her front, even though she had her undershirt on.

"Someone has to make sure Uncle doesn't buy a ton of cheap tea and such; she went with the others to the port market and asked me to do this," Zuko explained. "If you'd rather wait, I can keep the oil hot."

Katara paused, then moved, wincing at her stiff back. "I'll let you do it, but no…" she trailed off, giving a look that said it all.

"I'm not some perverted teenaged boy, Katara," he retorted. "You should know that by now."

"Hey, I've got good reason to be wary around boys," Katara quipped, lying down on the cot and propping her head up.

Zuko frowned as he stepped up next to her and set the bowl down on a small stool. "Really?" Katara nodded. "Do you mind if I ask why?"

Katara paused. "I'd rather not go into detail about what Jet said," she muttered.

"That's fine," Zuko replied and began to apply the oil.

It took at least in an hour before Zuko figured he had done enough. His uncle and the others were still not back yet, so he lay down on the other cot (Katara had fallen asleep during the process) to maybe nap, rest at most.

He dozed off, because the next thing he knew, he was waking up to Katara's moans and murmurs.

The small lantern that had been lit when he had lay down was almost out, but in the pale light Zuko could see Katara's face contorted into a mask of horror. "No…not you too…come back! Sokka? Aang? Anyone!" The former prince realized she was having nightmare.

_Do I wake her up?_

_I would._

_For once, I actually agree, though I though only insane people heard voices in their head._

_You've been through hell and back and you _still_ think you're sane?_

…_Point taken._

Zuko stood and walked over to Katara. He shook a couple of times, but it didn't work. "Katara, Katara. Wake up." His mouth was just above her ear, a lot closer than he had originally intended.

Katara's eyes popped open. "Oh, Zuko!" Before Zuko could react, Katara and thrown her arms around his neck.

"Are you okay? You were having a nightmare," he said, taken aback by Katara's sudden affection.

"I'm fine," she replied, not letting go.

"Are you sure?"

"You're starting to sound like me."

"It's not my fault I'm worried. You looked distressed." Lousy excuse, he knew, but Zuko was having difficultly thinking straight at the moment.

"Oh, my dream was terrible. Everyone was leaving me. Sokka first, then Aang, Toph, Gran-Gran, my dad, everyone. The last one left was you, and for some reason, I didn't want you to go. I'd have rather jumped off a cliff than lose you." Katara started to cry softly.

If her embrace had not shocked poor Zuko, her sobs would have. She'd have rather _died _than have him taken from her? Clueless as to what to do, Zuko merely kneeled to her level and wrapped his arms around her, attempting to comfort her.

When he inhaled, Katara's scent flooded his senses. He couldn't name what she herself smelled like because it was masked by the scents of everyone else, but it still captured him.

Katara had stopped crying but still embraced him, sniffing every so often. "Promise me something, Zuko," she murmured.

"What?"

"Don't leave without saying goodbye."

Zuko nodded. "I promise." He didn't get it, but if it made her happy, he wasn't going to argue.

"Zuko? Katara? Hello?" Ty Lee's cheery voice rang out. "Sorry we took so long; some festival thingamajig was taking place and we got sidetracked."

"It wasn't a festival, Ty Lee. It's sale day in Len Sung. They always go all out," Lakai corrected.

Katara let go of Zuko and put her shirt back on. "Coming!" She pulled Zuko out with her by the wrist. They stopped outside and gaped.

They had brought a ton of useless junk. "I thought you went along to make sure this didn't happen," Zuko asked.

In unison, everyone else pointed to Lakai. "Her fault!" Lakai blushed.

"I bought most of this stuff for me! And Toshi," she added.

"Who's Toshi?"

"My husband."

Everyone stopped and stared. "You're married?" Aang asked.

"Yep. Have been for, oh Jala, when was it?" She stopped. "Three years."

"Where is he?" Toph asked. She had a suspicious look on her face, as if she didn't trust men who ditched their wife.

"Oh, he had to do something that he couldn't let me get involved with, or so he said. Hmph, I can take care of myself in a fight. Anyway, it was something to do with the Fire Nation. He said that he'd meet me here, but didn't give a when so I stop by every few months to see."

"When was the last time you saw him?" Iroh asked, digging through the bags.

"It was just after the wedding that he took on the job, so three years ago," Lakai answered.

"And you bought junk for some guy you haven't seen in three years?" Sokka asked.

"I haven't seen Toshi, but he sends me letters regularly by reptilian parrot. They're incredibly reliable mail carriers," Lakai said. "I still wear my betrothal necklace." She pointed out the blue pendant on the silken band around her neck. Both were more a sea toned blue than Katara's necklace, but it was still an engagement necklace. "Now, who got what again?"

They spent the next two hours dividing merchandise, with Lakai breaking off to cook lunch every so often. Most of it was food, but some was nonperishable items, like new shoes for Ty Lee, at least twenty yards of different colored cloth (or so it seemed) and matching threads, hair ribbons for Ty Lee and Katara (Toph blatantly refused any ribbons and instead got a new headband), and so on.

"We even got a hat and some really cool gloves to hide my arrows!" Aang exclaimed, showing Katara. "And a hood for Zuko, if he wants it." Aang looked at Zuko, slightly worried.

"Your scar is a bit recognizable, Zuko," Katara pointed out. "This should help hide in if we ever go into a town." Katara studied his scar, as if trying to figure out why he had it to begin with.

Zuko nodded, a slight frown on his face. He felt…hurt over something, but he didn't know what.

"How did you pay for all of it?" Zuko asked, a little coldness to his tone. Iroh looked up from his rummaging and looked at Zuko, a concerned look on his face. He could tell something was wrong.

"I pulled a few favors to get the better stuff, but since the whole market was having a huge sale, it was incredibly cheap. And, Sokka put on a great performance that got us some free stuff."

"It was not a performance! I'd been bitten by fire ants!" Sokka protested.

"Yeah," Lakai said. "Ya danced." Sokka started to protest, but Lakai kept saying he had danced.

For some reason, all the laughter got on Zuko's nerves. Laughter hadn't bugged him since he joined the Avatar; why was it now? He was beginning to feel the way he had on his ship. He was feeling like a prince who thought the world had wronged him.

Fed up with it all, Zuko abruptly stood and stalked off into the surrounding trees. He didn't see Katara attempt to stand to follow and his uncle stopping her with a hand on her arm.

He walked through the trees, stopping when he reached a willow. In a place with moon peach and other assorted short leafed trees, this weeping willow was Zuko in a Water Tribe village, as in out of place. Shrugging off the abnormality of it, Zuko pushed aside the branches and sat down against the tree's trunk to meditate.

_In, out. In, out. _ Eventually, Zuko forgot all about the others (except his uncle) and was absorbed in his meditation.

He was so absorbed, in fact, he didn't notice it when Momo came swooping in, holding a moon peach. (Momo didn't notice him either. He was just trying to find a place where Sokka wouldn't steal his fruit.) When Momo did notice him, he squawked slightly. Zuko didn't acknowledge him. Curious, Momo walked over to Zuko and waved the moon peach under his nose (it worked for Sokka). Zuko didn't move.

Momo scrambled up Zuko's head and waved a small paw in front of his closed eyes. Nothing. The lemur rapped his paw on Zuko's skull. Still nothing. Shrugging, Momo clawed at Zuko's hair and nestled down for a nap.

_That _got Zuko's attention. "What the…?" He reached up and felt the ball of fur that was Momo. "Get off, you crazy lemur." Momo squawked, but jumped down, picking up the fallen peach.

Zuko sighed. His meditation had just been ruined completely. He stood and left the shelter of the willow branches.

It was late evening already. Zuko had forgotten how easily he could get lost in his meditation. He headed back to camp.

It must have been later than he thought, because when he arrived, Lakai was the only one still up. Her usual braided bun was out and she seemed to be putting out the fire.

"Oh, Zuko. You were gone a long time. Did something happen?" she asked upon noticing him.

"No," was his stiff reply. Lakai frowned and shrugged.

"If you're hungry get some of those moon peaches. G'night." With that, she turned in.

Zuko sighed and took one of the suggested peaches. In all honesty, he didn't know what was wrong with him. True, for him to be moody was no big deal, but usually a chain of events led to his surliness or anger. He hadn't felt even an urge to be surly or rude since…

Since Katara had helped him with his ankle.

Maybe that was it. Maybe Katara's scrutiny of him this afternoon had set off something in him, something that brought back his surly attitude. But why at her look? Why not when Sokka made comments? Or when Ty Lee was being to preppy? Why only when Katara had given him that look?

_Because you were hurt by it._

_Huh?_

_Just what I said._

Zuko sighed and wiped his mouth. He was tired, that was all. The sight of all the junk had put him in a lousy mood, as his uncle's shopping trips always had. He stood and entered the tent he was sharing with Katara, not noticing which cot he lay down on.


	16. Chapter 16

Something shifted in Zuko's grasp. In his sleep, he frowned. What was in his bed? Worse, _who _was in his bed? The small body (small in comparison to his), moved closer, gripping his arms slightly.

It was obviously still night; Zuko could faintly hear the cricket birds in the nearby trees. With that thought in mind, Zuko decided he couldn't care less about who was in his arms (though if he had been awake enough, he would have figured it out). Instead, he relaxed and fell back asleep.

In his dreams, he was back at the Fire Palace where he belonged. He could feel the hairpiece of the Fire Lord resting on his head and the red robes swishing around his ankles as he walked.

He walked towards what had been his parents' bedroom (now his), pulling aside the foldable screen that blocked the Fire Lord's Quarters from the rest of the palace. Zuko brushed aside the silk banners that acted as doors from the outermost chamber to the ten inner ones. At the center, Zuko knew that something was waiting for him.

Sure enough, in the round innermost chamber, someone was sitting on the feather bed, hidden by the silk canopies. Zuko smiled and shed the heavy robes he was wearing, leaving him in his black shirt and pants he wore under them. He parted the curtain and found himself locked in a tight embrace. Burying his face in the long dark hair of who was obviously his lover, Zuko inhaled the woman's scent. _Snow lotuses and moon peaches._

_Wait…aren't those Katara's favorite flowers?_

_Katara…_

Zuko woke up, feeling whoever was in his arms stir as well. The person extracted herself from Zuko's arms, turned, and gasped.

"_Zuko? _What are you doing in my bed?"

"You're bed? I thought this was mine? It was empty when I went to sleep," Zuko retorted, sitting up, trying to hide his blush.

"I had gotten up in the night to get a drink of water and use the bathroom!" Katara said in a loud whisper, not wanting to wake anyone up. "You must have come back and fallen asleep in _my _bed before I came back. And when I came back, it was pitch black and I didn't see you in my bed, so…"

"You laid down with me," Zuko finished. Katara paled slightly when he put it that way, but nodded. There was an uncomfortable silence. Katara looked at Zuko.

"Let's not tell anyone about this, okay?"

"My lips are sealed."

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"So, I think we should leave sometime tomorrow," Sokka said as he finished his breakfast.

"So soon?" Lakai asked. Sokka nodded, trying to hold back his laughter at the sight of Momo sitting on Lakai's head and the Waterbender doing nothing about it.

"We don't want Azula catching up to us, or bring her anywhere near you, after all you did for my sister," Sokka said. Iroh nodded.

"He's right, Miss Lakai. My niece will be on the trail in a matter of days, if she isn't already," he pointed out. Aang groaned.

"For once I'd like to not think about that creepy girl and her being after me," the young Avatar complained.

"It's an occupational hazard, Aang," Toph said nonchalantly. "Like being blind means you hear and sense things you'd really rather not." She turned her head slightly towards Ty Lee and Sokka. Zuko gathered that there had been a little flirting, at least on Ty Lee's part, the previous night.

Lakai nodded. "Okay. I'll give you guys some supplies and such. How're y'all going to fit on the bison?" Momo's tail fell into her eyes and she brushed it aside carelessly.

The gang paused and looked at each other. With Iroh and the supplies, there'd be little or no room.

"I forgot about that…" Aang muttered. The others nodded. Iroh looked ready to say he'd stay with Lakai, but Zuko knew and stopped him.

"You're coming, Uncle. It took me almost a month to find you; I'm not letting you out of my sight again," he said. Iroh smiled and nodded.

"Anyone got some ostrich horses?" Everyone turned to Ty Lee. She blushed. "Just an idea."

"And a pretty good one," Sokka said, thinking. "We'll need…at least two ostrich horses."

Lakai nodded and stood. "It's Tuesday, right?" At the nods, Lakai started at jog towards Len Sung. "Be back in a few!"

She did return, with three ostrich horses in tow. Aang cheered and ran over to pet them. "I love ostrich horses!" Lakai smiled and handed him the reins.

"Why do you need the horses anyway?" she asked. Sokka looked the said animals over.

"What's with the small one?" he asked. Lakai looked at it.

"It's the baby, too young to be away from the mother right now, so I got her free. Why do you need them?"

"Good question," Katara agreed.

"I'm with them!" came Toph's remark.

"Shut up and I'll tell you." Sokka waited for silence. "Thank you. Now, there's room for three, maybe four, people on Appa with the supplies, right?"

"Right," Katara and Toph said in unison

"Two people can fit on an ostrich horse, right?"

"Right."

"So, three people ride Appa, while the other four ride the horses to the same place. We camp, Toph trains Aang in Earthbending, you practice Waterbending with him, sis, and…would one of you two teach Aang Firebending?" Sokka asked, turning to Iroh and Zuko.

Iroh bowed. "It would be an honor."

Sokka nodded and clapped his hands together. "Well then, we're all set. Or, at least, we will be once we get everything together," he added as an afterthought.

Katara applauded slightly. "Not bad, Sokka," she congratulated.

Zuko smirked. "You actually have a brain."

"Thanks…hey!" Sokka looked offended when everyone else started laughing. Oddly, the one laughing the hardest was his sister.

It about two hours to get the luggage divided up and loaded, and then it took at least three quarters of another hour to decide who would travel with who and how first. Iroh got Appa, due his age, and Sokka insisted that Katara got to ride Appa as well. ("She's my baby sister and she was injured!") The problem was who was going to ride with them.

The matter of their traveling arrangements settled, Toph, Katara, and Iroh sat back while Aang and Sokka fought it out. Ty Lee was standing by for mediating purposes and Lakai was getting some more herbs for them to take along in case of sickness. Zuko was just standing there, bored.

Toph turned to Katara. "By the way, you may not have noticed it, but Sokka's been flirting with Ty Lee. And it hasn't even been a full week yet."

"What? Agreeing with her and elaborating on her idea? That's not flirting; that's just Sokka," Katara retorted. "You've still got two weeks."

Meanwhile, Zuko was just letting Sokka drone on.

"I'm her brother!"

"Yeah, but I'm the Avatar!"

"I say Zuko rides." Everyone turned to Lakai, who had just exited her shrine-tent. "Here, Katara. Blessed and everything." She noticed the stares. "What? Zuko apparently is the only one capable of protecting her (and that's what you two are really saying), so let him do it."

"Why?" Aang and Sokka asked, awed.

"He's the only one not throwing a fit."

She had them there. Therefore, after they had settled on a landing place, Katara waved to her brother and Aang as Appa flew off with her and two Firebenders.

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Wow, chapter sixteen and no kiss! That's the longest I've gone without any MAJOR MAJOR fluff, I think... Don't worry, it's just them and Iroh in the next chapter, and we all know how much Iroh loves Zutara...


	17. Chapter 17

Yay! is working again!

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There wasn't much room in the saddle for three people, and someone had to steer anyway, so Katara was sitting on Appa's head, listening to Iroh lecture Zuko about being lazy and neglecting his Firebending.

"It's not like I could have practiced while I had a sprained ankle, Uncle," Zuko pointed out.

"And after? What then, Zuko?" Iroh asked.

"I had to be careful! Firebending would have alerted Azula to our position faster," Zuko quipped.

"And that's and excuse? Zuko, if you wish to be able to defeat your crazy sister, _practice is vital!_" Iroh sat back. "As soon as we meet up with the Avatar, I'll start training both of you." The ex-general gave his a nephew a look that dared him to argue. Zuko, defeated, crawled over to the other end of the saddle and slid down to sit with Katara.

The Waterbender smirked. "Tired of your uncle already?" Zuko growled. "Take that as a 'yes'."

"I keep having to repeat 'I love my uncle, I love my uncle' in my head to keep from snapping," he replied. Katara giggled, and then blushed when she realized how close she and Zuko were. Zuko noticed and looked away.

Suddenly, a freak wind picked up, nearly causing Katara to fall off Appa. "Whoa, gotcha." Zuko grasped Katara's hand, pulling her back.

"Thanks. That's the second time you've stopped me from falling off Appa," she muttered. Zuko merely nodded and took Katara's arm, telling himself it was just to be sure that she wouldn't fall.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zuko noticed his uncle was watching him, trying hard to hide one his evil grins that Zuko was all too familiar with. It looked just like Azula, only less malevolent and more mischievous.

Apparently, Katara didn't see Iroh, because she absently leaned against Zuko's side, shivering slightly. Zuko tried to hide his sudden blush, but he could feel the heat rise to his face. He silently hoped that his whole body temperature wasn't rising; Katara would feel it and ask why.

"What was life like for you, growing up in the Fire Palace?" she asked. Zuko looked down at her.

"I told you that already."

"You told me what the Fire Palace itself was like; what was your life like?" Katara looked up at him. Zuko took a deep breath. He would tell her about his life before his mother disappeared. For the four years after that, it was all training and lessons.

"Growing up in the Fire Palace was…okay until I was ten. Then I had to focus more on lessons and less on free time," Zuko said. Katara nodded and motioned for him to continue. "Before that, most of whatever I wanted and everything I needed was catered to by the servants. Living with my sister was sheer torture, but I…left before she had hit that age where you girls seem to be moody."

"Puberty?"

"Yeah." The two teenaged benders paused then shivered at the same time. The thought of Azula with raging hormones frightened them. Katara shook her head.

"Okay, anyway…"

"What? Oh, right." Zuko shifted slightly, causing Katara's head to rest on his chest. "Um…like I said before, I never left the palace much. I spent most of my free time in my mother's courtyard, watching the turtle ducks." With that, Zuko fell silent, thinking about lost days.

He sat there for a few minutes, Katara's head on his chest. Finally, Katara spoke up. "Zuko?"

He looked down at her. "What?"

"Mind if I ask how you got your scar?" Zuko tensed. He _knew _that was going come up eventually.

"Why do you want to ask?" he muttered.

"Well, the other night, after Lakai treated me, you had another nightmare, and you were touching your scar. I guess I'm worried. I do that a lot, worry, I mean," Katara explained. Zuko nodded.

"You can ask, but I might tell you," he warned.

"How'd you get your scar?"

Zuko had never told anyone about his scar that didn't already know; would he change that for one Water Tribe?

_I would! And so would your uncle, who is probably eavesdropping._

Inwardly, Zuko cursed his other side and looked at Katara. "Don't tell anyone," he said firmly. Katara nodded and he told her.

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It was afternoon and they were looking for the spot where everyone was supposed to meet. Zuko hadn't said a word since he had explained his past to Katara. After his tale, he had gotten back in Appa's saddle and sat at the far end, brooding.

"There it is! There's the Mound of One Hundred Soldiers!" Katara cried happily. Iroh nodded and held on as the Waterbender brought Appa down.

"I don't think I will ever be used to sudden landings like that, Miss Katara," Iroh complained. Katara smirked as she climbed down.

"Zuko said the same thing; now he's a pro!" Iroh chuckled, and looked at his nephew. Zuko merely rolled his eyes and jumped off.

"How long do you think until the others show up?" Zuko asked.

"Depends on how fast they're traveling. If they're going Sokka's pace, probably sometime tomorrow," Katara joked. "Could you go get some firewood, Zuko? It'll be dark soon." Zuko nodded and left.

He was gone at least an hour, not just getting firewood, but also taking time for himself. He wasn't used to talking about his rather painful past with people, and not only had he told Katara, but she had _cried _for him. Not loudly, of course, but Zuko had seen the tears fall softly. For some reason, he felt…bad for making her cry.

When he returned, everyone else had caught up and were arguing about who'd get Appa tomorrow.

"Here." Zuko deposited the wood and walked off. Behind his back, Sokka made a face; Katara shushed him. She stood and made a small fire pit that Iroh lit with his Firebending.

"So, we're still heading for the Eastern Air Temple, right?" Toph asked. Aang nodded.

"We'd be safe there for a while, giving everyone a well deserved rest with no Azula issues. I'm warning you guys, though, it'll be chilly. The Eastern Temple was up in higher mountains and there still might be snow on some of the peaks."

"And it's a good thing there's that cloth from the market. I can make heavy cloaks for those of us who don't have one," Katara said as she and Ty Lee set about getting some dinner ready. "Sokka and I have our parkas, I think."

"Like I'm gonna get rid of them, Katara," Sokka pointed out. Katara nodded.

"So that's….five cloaks. Hope we have enough cloth," she muttered.

"As Firebenders, Zuko and I are able to keep our body temperature higher, so light cloaks will suffice," Iroh offered.

"Lucky," Sokka muttered.

Zuko, meanwhile, was leaning against a rock that marked the place of slaughter the mound was named for. His uncle said that, right after the war started, one hundred soldiers, twenty-five of each nation, had died there.

It was here that Katara found him, thinking. "Zuko," she said softly," dinner's ready." Zuko nodded. The Waterbender waited, and then added, "Are you coming?"

"I'm not hungry right now," he replied in a low voice. Katara simply nodded and acted as though she was going to go back, but stopped.

"Come with me." She grabbed his wrist and pulled him along after her, in the opposite direction of camp.

"What are you doing, Katara?" Zuko asked when the girl slowed down. Katara stopped and turned to Zuko, her necklace catching the full moon's light.

"You've been like this all afternoon, Zuko. What's wrong?" Katara's eyes were full of concern.

"Nothing that concerns you," Zuko spat. He was tempted to add _peasant_, but Zuko really didn't think of Katara as a peasant anymore.

"It started when I asked about your scar, so I think it concerns me," retorted Katara. "Zuko, I just want to know what's wrong."

"Hmph." Zuko looked away and crossed his arms. He looked back at Katara. "You really want to know what's wrong with me?" Katara nodded. _Let's see, I'm a fugitive, I have an annoying inner voice, I told you everything about my past and…_

_I think I'm attracted you._

Where had that come from? How on earth could he be attracted to some Water Tribe girl? Granted, she was kind, gentle, fierce in a pinch, a skilled fighter, beautiful…

_Stop that, _Zuko commanded himself. He focused back on Katara. "I'm not used to reliving my past for other people," he muttered.

"You didn't have to tell me, Zuko. I just wanted to know if it had anything to do with your nightmares lately," Katara said softly, coming closer. "Though I kinda feel sorry for your dad."

"Why?"

Katara smirked. "Because he has one very ticked off female Master Waterbender on his hands now." Zuko rolled his eyes and smiled slightly. "What? You've seen me get mad; it's not pretty."

"That's true," Zuko replied. He paused. "Thank you."

"No problem. For what?"

"For understanding."

Katara nodded, then reached her hand up to Zuko's scar. He tensed and closed his eyes, but allowed her to touch it slightly. "I'm sorry this had to happen," she murmured. "I know you probably don't want my sympathy, and I know that no amount of apologies can ever heal it, but I'm still sorry."

Zuko looked at her and took the hand that was on his cheek, lowering it but keeping it in his grasp. "It's okay, Katara. I probably deserve having it anyway."

"No! No one deserves to have their own father scar them like that! Especially you," she added. Zuko cocked an eyebrow.

"Why 'especially me'?" he asked. He could see Katara's blush in the moonlight.

"Because…because you're a nice person, when you want to be. You proved that when you spoke up for that division," Katara stammered.

Zuko just stared at her for a few minutes, oddly elated that she thought he wasn't an idiot or a monster or one of the hundreds of things he thought about himself at times.

He realized that they had been talking for quite some time and were about an eighth of a mile away from camp. "We should be heading back now. Your brother probably ate all of the dinner."

Katara giggled. "No he didn't. I hid some away for you, in case you wanted it later, and he loves me too much to eat all of my dinner. C'mon." They walked back to camp, not realizing that their hands were clasped together the entire time.


	18. Chapter 18

As a treat after dealing with a buggy TWO chapters! (the next one is a bit short, but hey, so sue me.)

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Zuko woke up with Katara on the same bedroll. Dimly he recalled that, upon returning to camp, the two teens had discovered that they were short one sleeping bag or bedroll.

"I'll sleep on Appa, you can use the bedroll," Katara had offered. Zuko refused, insisting that she take it. Finally, after about ten minutes of that, they had decided to share it on the far side of Appa, just in case anyone woke up before Zuko and saw them.

_Good thing, too. _He had Katara in his arms, pressed firmly against his body. She had been shivering last night and Zuko, feeling sorry for her, had taken her in his arms. They must have fallen asleep like that.

Not that he minded. Sometime in the course of the night, Zuko had accepted the fact that he was attracted to Katara. It wasn't wrong or anything; she was beautiful both physically and in personality and (no matter how hard he tried to deny it) he was a typical teenaged male.

Before his train of thought continued, Katara woke up and turned to face him. "Did we fall asleep like this?" she asked, motioning to their positions. Zuko nodded. "Please tell me Sokka didn't see us," she muttered, closing her eyes.

"He's probably still asleep, Katara," Zuko pointed out.

"Good point. You're really hot, you know that?" Zuko looked at the girl; Katara blushed as the comment she had said registered. "I didn't mean it that way. I mean your body temperature."

"Oh." They looked at each other for a minute, then sat up, detangling themselves. Katara climbed off Appa and went around to the other side. Zuko watched her, then followed.

A groggy Ty Lee and a typical Toph were already up. "How long have you two been awake?" Katara asked.

"About five minutes. Twinkle Toes went to take a well-needed bath. He stunk. After you two left last night, we decided that, until we get to the Temple, you, Scarface, and Old Tea Guy get Appa while the rest of us will ride the horses. Appa can find the way to the temple easily, but the horses can't," Toph said, lounging against a log.

"My uncle's name is Iroh, so don't call him 'Old Tea Guy," Zuko warned. Toph shrugged and nodded.

"Fine. So…what's for breakfast?"

"Fruit," Ty Lee and Katara answered in unison.

"I'm tired of cooking all the time," Ty Lee said. Katara nodded her agreement.

"Besides, Sokka's getting fat."

"Am not!" came the sleep-muffled cry from Sokka's form.

"Are too, brother dear." With that, Katara walked over and kicked Sokka lightly in the stomach. Sokka groaned and rolled over on his stomach.

"Go 'way, Kata," he muttered, using his sister's baby name. Katara stuck her tongue out at her big brother and sauntered away.

Zuko watched as Katara dug through the numerous bags of supplies and brought out various fruits. "Zuko, do you want a peach or an apple?"

"Is that all?"

"Well, there are mangoes, papaya, several small melons (I'll probably eat half of one), oranges, and Momo's bananas." With that, the small lemur jumped and took a banana. Katara looked at the Firebender.

"Did Lakai give us a whole orchard?" he muttered as he took the other half of Katara's melon.

"Pretty much," Toph quipped. "I counted. Fifty each of various peaches, twenty-three apples, ten melons, thirty mangoes, fifteen papaya, twenty-two bananas, and ten oranges. And meat jerky. _Lots _of jerky."

"Oh, you're up Katara." Everyone turned to see Aang drying off his head. "Where were you last night?"

Katara gulped. Zuko could tell she didn't want to tell Aang that she had been alone with him the previous night and him get the wrong idea.

"She was with me," said Zuko. "We talked, that's all." Aang looked at Katara, who nodded.

"Oh. Well, did Toph tell you about the travel plan?"

"Yeah. Iroh, Zuko, and I ride Appa, you guys ride the horses," Katara said. "Sounds good to me."

Ty Lee, now more awake, nodded. "Yeah. Now, as soon as Sokka and Iroh wake up, we can decide on the next meeting place!"

It wasn't long before the last two woke up. Iroh insisted that everyone tried a new tea Lakai had introduced, naturally stronger that regular tea and darker. "It gives you an energy boost that most teas won't."

At that, the two Water siblings took Aang's tea away from him. "Hey!"

"Remember what happened last time you drank something energy increasing?" Katara asked.

"You were bouncing off the walls. Well, more so than usual," her brother pointed out. "And I do not want to have to deal with an Airbender with a hyperactive problem."

Toph giggled, causing the tea to go up her nose. That caused everyone else to laugh, until Sokka fell over.

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_Five days later…_

Katara sat on Appa's head, wrapped in her parka. They were close to the temple and the air was colder at the higher altitudes.

Zuko, who was sitting in the saddle, a black cloak and his hood on, watched as Katara shivered slightly. As he had done the day before, he slid down and sat next to her. Katara smiled at him and moved slightly closer.

"With this huge thing on, you'd think I'd be the warmest," she muttered. Zuko rolled his eyes.

"You're not a Firebender. You can't heat yourself up like I can." He said this with the air of having repeated in multiple times. (He had.)

Katara laughed as she collapsed against Zuko's arm. "You'd best not say that around Sokka. He'd start getting ideas."

"It's not like you'd be helping to disprove them. Always coming right to me if you're cold," Zuko pointed out.

"You're fault. You're warm and I get cold easily!"

"You lived in the South Pole for fourteen years."

"Yeah, but I've spent several months away from cold and I haven't gotten re-used to it yet," Katara pouted. Her eyes said she knew it was a lame excuse.

Zuko merely rolled his eyes and looked down. "Isn't that where we said we'd meet the others?" Katara looked down to the river he was pointing at.

"Yup. Appa, down." The bison groaned and descended. Upon landing, Katara scrambled off. "If the others show up, I'm taking a well deserved bath," she informed Zuko and Iroh, grabbing some of the soap Lakai had given them and dashing further down the river.

Iroh slowly climbed down and looked at his nephew, who was watching Katara's retreating back.

"So…how long?" Zuko looked at his uncle.

"How long what?" he asked, oblivious. Iroh smirked.

"How long have you been, what's the word, _smitten _with Miss Katara?" Iroh teased. Zuko held his hands up.

"What makes you say I'm 'smitten', as you put it?"

"Zuko, I'm old and senile but I'm not blind. I was young once, and I was in love. I've seen the looks you give the girl, the way you purposely raise your body temperature to attract her to her when she's cold. I did the same thing with your Aunt Lian during our courtship. Of course, I had the benefits that came with being the eldest son of Azulon, so I was also able to spoil her," he added as an afterthought.

"I don't need to be reminded that I have nothing, Uncle," Zuko muttered.

"No, being the heir apparent to Azulon was a lot better than being heir apparent to my brother would be," Iroh explained. "And you only have nothing if you deny what's right in front of you." Zuko sighed and went off to get firewood.

He was only gone fifteen minutes but the others had caught up by the time he returned. "Where's my sister?" Sokka asked, suspicious. Zuko sighed. He may have been traveling with them for almost a month now, but Sokka was still distrustful.

"Bathing. She should be back soon." With that, Zuko deposited the firewood. Ty Lee set up a fire pit and Aang, under Iroh's supervision, lit it.

"I did it! And I didn't burn anything this time!" Aang cried, breaking into a huge grin. Toph smiled and punched Aang on the arm.

"Good job, Aang." The young Avatar blushed at any compliment from his teacher. Ty Lee giggled and set about dinner in the absence of Katara.

"How long can one girl take to bathe?" Sokka muttered as he took his dinner (jerky and fruit, again) from Ty Lee about ten minutes later.

"Hours, if she thinks she smells bad enough," Ty Lee said. "Trust me. Some of the other acrobats would take half the day to get ready for an hour performance." Sokka groaned.

"Someone go get Katara. I'm too tired to deal with her." Aang jumped up to go, but Iroh stopped him.

"Not so fast, young Avatar. It's time for your practice," the older bender said. Aang groaned and followed Iroh. Ty Lee giggled and Toph snorted.

"Zuko, go get Sugar Queen," Toph ordered.

"Why can't you or Ty Lee?"

"Because my butt's sore from being in a saddle all day and Ty Lee is cooking. Please?" Toph actually pulled a puppy face pout on Zuko.

"I'll go only because you just pulled the most pathetic face I have ever seen," Zuko said, standing. Toph grinned and waved him out of the camp.

After he had left, Ty Lee turned to Toph. "No more of that. If they kiss because of that, I still win."

Toph shrugged. "Fine."


	19. Chapter 19

Zuko followed the path of damaged roots to where Katara was bathing, about ten minutes away. Stopping before he saw anything, he called out. "Katara? Everyone's wondering where you're at."

"Zuko? Oh, gods, hold on!" He heard rustling and slight splashing; it was probably Katara getting out of the water and putting something on. "Okay, at least I'm somewhat decent," she muttered. "You can come out now."

Zuko left the hiding spot and promptly wished he hadn't. Katara was only in her white undergarments, hair down. "I thought you said you were decent," he muttered, turning his head.

"Well, would you rather me have nothing on?"

"Point taken. But still, Katara, what if your brother had been with me?" Zuko asked.

Katara chuckled. "He'd have first killed you and yelled at me, then killed you again for being in my presence when I look like this," she said, motioning to her state of dress. "Besides, after traveling with you for almost a month, it's not like I mind too much."

"What?"

"Well, I got used to your presence and now it's like you were always traveling with us, not chasing us," Katara explained, shaking out her hair and brushing it with a comb Lakai had given her. "Besides, I've seen you without your shir-nevermind!"

Zuko cocked an eyebrow. "What were you about to say?" he asked. Katara blushed.

"Nothing!"

Zuko nodded, then whipped around to the side the lying Waterbender. "Tell me what you were to say or," here Zuko took Katara's chin, "I'll kiss you."

"When you were first injured, remember that I drugged? Well, I did it mainly so I could check for bodily wounds in the chest area without embarrassing you. I had to, well, y'know."

"Pretend I don't." Katara stuck her tongue out.

"I had to remove your shirt. You were fine except for a few bruises, so I healed those and quickly put your shirt back on."

"Uh-huh." Zuko leaned in closer to Katara's ear and whispered something to her. Katara blushed and swatted him.

"Zuko! Are you flirting with me?" she asked in disbelief. Zuko shrugged and let her go.

"You better hurry, or your brother might start getting ideas, if he hasn't already." Katara rolled her eyes and finished dressing. Unfortunately, her parka had gotten wet, so she had to deal without it.

"Ready." With that, the two headed back.

They weren't even two minutes away from the river when a chilly breeze caused Katara to shiver. Zuko sighed and wrapped part of his cloak (which he still had on) around her shivering shoulders. Katara hugged to her and nodded her thanks. Instinctively, she moved closer to Zuko, to the point where their arms were touching.

Right before they entered camp, Katara left the warmth of Zuko's cloak. "Sokka," she said simply when he gave her a look. He nodded and they entered camp.

"Took ya long enough. Anything happen I should know about?" Sokka asked accusingly.

"No, Sokka. Zuko came and got me, then we walked back," Katara assured, reaching for a spare blanket to use until her parka dried.

Toph and Aang motioned both her and Zuko over to where they were sitting. "Guess what Katara, guess what?" Aang said in an excited whisper.

"What?"

"Snoozles and Pokey kissed while you and Scarface were out by the forest," Toph said. Katara's jaw dropped.

"What?"

"It's true." Everyone turned to see Iroh sitting next to them. "Your brother and Ty Lee did kiss."

"_On the lips," _Aang emphasized. Toph turned to Katara.

"I believe I win our bet, Sugar Queen," she said.

"Bet?" Zuko and Aang looked at the two oddly. Katara sighed.

"I bet it would take at least four weeks for Sokka to flirt back with Ty Lee about the time we ran into Lakai. Toph bet it would take three weeks or less. So, what do I have to do?"

Toph pondered it. "Well, if Scarface won't mind, you have to share your sleeping bag with Zuko. And, at least until your parka is dry, his cloak. _And _you have to share a room at the Temple when we get there," Toph said with an evil look on her face.

Both Zuko and Katara paled slightly. "Sokka'll object!" the Waterbender pointed out.

"Uncle, little help here…"

"Don't worry! I'll tell Sokka Toph dared you two and if you don't she'll stick ya in quicksand or make you kiss or something," Ty Lee said cheerfully.

"And I'm not helping you out of this one, Zuko," Iroh added. "You went and got yourself dragged into this, not me."

"How did I go and get myself dragged into this?" demanded the younger former aristocrat.

"By flirting with Miss Katara, of course." Iroh said this as though it was the most obvious statement in the world. Zuko groaned and Katara blushed.

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Later that evening, after everyone else was asleep, Katara and Zuko were still awake. It wasn't as if sharing sleeping space was a new concept to them; they had shared the bedroll for almost a week now. But sharing a _sleeping bag _was completely different, at least to them.

Finally, Katara yawned and reached for her sleeping bag. "Dare or no dare, I'm tired and chilly. G'night." She crawled into her bag and closed her eyes.

Zuko, on the other hand, couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about Katara. It's not as if he didn't try to think of anything else; he just couldn't break his thoughts away from the Waterbender two years his junior. Her hair, her eyes, her face, her voice, everything. And from what he had seen today at the river…he shook his head. He may be a typical teenager, but he was not going to go there!

Sighing, Zuko stood and decided that lying down was the best way to fall asleep. So he did just what he was being forced to do by his uncle and the blind Earthbender, and slipped into the sleeping bag with Katara, careful not to wake her.

He noticed that Katara was curled up in a position that would leave her with a sore neck in the morning. Gently, Zuko straightened her out. "Thanks, Zuko," she muttered.

"You…you're awake?" Zuko asked, feeling the heat rush to his face.

"Hmmm-mmm. I was waiting for you, to see if you'd what your uncle told you to do," Katara explained.

"I almost always do. There are exceptions."

"Like what?"

"Playing the sungi horn at Music Night on the ship."

"Playing the what?"

"Sungi horn, okay? It's not one of my better accomplishments, so don't laugh." Katara had to bite her tongue to keep from giggling, but managed to do so. All of a sudden, she yawned. Zuko looked at her with concern. "You should get to sleep."

Katara nodded and shivered. Zuko sighed and wrapped his arms around the girl, warming her body with his own. "Thanks, Zuko," Katara murmured, dozing off in the former prince's arms.

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As promised, two chaps. Now, REVEIW! Both chapters, please!


	20. Chapter 20

The next day found everyone on foot, heading to the Eastern Air Temple. Her parka still not dry, Katara shared a cloak with Zuko. Sokka wasn't happy with it at first, but a little persuasion from Ty Lee (who had been eavesdropping before butting in the night before) had convinced him it was okay.

Zuko rolled his eyes as Katara wrapped her arms around her body. "You're amazing," he muttered.

"Hey, I don't have my long sleeves on and my parka is still drying. This isn't exactly the warmest material," she said, holding the corner of her shirt out to him. "It's thin cotton. Even that is warmer than this!" Katara pointed to Zuko's tunic.

Zuko was about to reply when Aang's jubilant cry rang out. "There it is! The Eastern Air Temple!"

Everyone looked up and gasped. The other temples the various members of the group had seen were nothing compared this. The spires were at least as tall as Appa on his back two feet, the stonework so intricate that there was no way to tell where it began and it ended. The stone itself was akin to marble in color (and feel, but no one knew that until they touched it). Even Toph could sense its beauty.

"Whoa," Sokka said. For once, Zuko agreed with the warrior. "Whoa" was the only word that could describe the temple.

Aang smiled proudly. "This is the first time I've seen it personally, but I've seen sketches and such."

"I thought monks were modest, Aang," Toph commented, reaching for the Airbender's shoulder.

"These were Air Nomadic Nuns, Toph. Most girls are sticklers for beauty," Sokka explained.

"Hey, just because I'm a tomboy doesn't mean I don't like pretty things, even though I can't see them," Toph quipped. "Though if anyone got me a dress, I'd bury them knee deep in quicksand."

"I don't doubt that, Miss Toph, but shouldn't we get going? I do not want my niece to catch up to us while we're standing like a bunch of beached elephant koi," Iroh said. Everyone snapped out of their awe and agreed. Zuko, Iroh, and Katara boarded Appa and the others got the horses, the only way short of flying to get all the way up to the temple.

"Race ya to the temple!" Sokka called to his sister. Katara laughed.

"You're on! Appa, yip yip and on the double!" Appa, who was making the same challenge with Momo, groaned and took off.

In a matter of ten minutes, Appa was at the temple. Sadly, Momo had beaten him by half a second. Katara laughed when she saw Appa's crestfallen bison face. "Poor Appa," she said, rubbing his head. Appa groaned and gently nudged her body. Katara roared with laughter as she fell over. Zuko smirked as he watched. He loved her laugh, unless it was at him (as it had been the previous night at dinner when he had spilled his drink on his shirt, soaking it).

"C'mon, Katara, time to stop playing around. If we don't hurry, your brother will get here and take the warmest room," Zuko said, offering the Waterbender a hand up. Katara laughed and took it.

"You're right, of course. Remember, though, if we don't choose a room together, Toph'll bury us, or me at least, in rocks," Katara reminded him. Zuko nodded and turned to his uncle.

"We'll be right back, Uncle. Do you want me to move your stuff to a room?"

"No, I'll be fine until the Avatar catches up. Don't have too much fun, now!" Iroh called, waving them off. Katara blushed and Zuko turned beet red.

"Uncle! We are going to find rooms! That is all!" he explained. Iroh smirked and gave his nephew a "whatever you say" look. Zuko rolled his eyes and led Katara off.

They found a room with a small fireplace and a large bed. There were no other furnishings except a small relic in a prayer niche. Katara sized it up, then nodded approvingly.

"Not bad for a few days, or weeks, stay. We've got until…the week before the Comet comes before the eclipse happens. The Comet doesn't come until the end of summer, and the solstice is about two weeks away, so we're good! Whoa, it's nearly summer and it's cold up here?" Katara would have continued to ramble if Zuko's alarmed question hadn't startled her.

"Solar eclipse?"

Katara nodded. "Yeah. That's when Aang'll go fight Ozai. Why?" She noticed Zuko's concerned look.

"Solar eclipses can sometimes cause a Firebender to faint, especially total eclipses. Partial ones usually just weaken us to the point of collapse," he explained. Katara nodded.

"We figured as much, since you draw power from the sun. But you'll be all right, won't you?" she asked, sitting down on the bed. Zuko, still standing, looked away.

"I don't know. About the time I was twelve, there was a partial eclipse and I nearly fainted. I don't know what will happen if it is a total eclipse."

Katara gasped softly. "Oh." She looked down. "I'm sure you'll be okay. You're considerably older and stronger now," she said reassuringly.

"Older, yes. Stronger, no." Katara looked at him. "Look at me, Katara. I'm almost seventeen and I can't do anything a Fire Nation prince should be able to do. The only battle skill I have any talent in is twin broadsword fighting and martial arts. I've barely passed my Firebending basics!" he cried. "I showed how weak I was three years ago in my father's war chamber; I have the scar to prove it. The thought of an eclipse, and if you tell anyone I'll kill you, frightens me to death." There. He had just admitted one of his deepest fears. To Katara. What was he, drunk?

The young Waterbender stood up and faced Zuko. He tried to turn away, but her arms around his neck prevented that. "Zuko, I want you to do two things for me. _Never _say you're weak, and never hide what you're feeling. My dad did, and probably still does, that. He has since Mom died. He won't tell anyone about what happened. He won't even speak of her. Bato, a friend we ran into, said that Dad is getting more and more withdrawn. You're a powerful person, Zuko, and I don't want you to end up like that." She brushed his unscarred cheek with her hand. "Please don't."

Zuko closed his eyes as Katara's soft hand brushed against his face. He remembered thinking a few nights ago, that he was attracted to Katara. Forget that. He was in love with her.

With that thought beating itself into his brain, Zuko opened his eyes. He wrapped his arms around Katara's waist, bringing her closer. He dimly registered that his heart was beating so fast and so loud that Katara had to hear it. Slowly, he leaned forward, gently kissing her. Upon breaking apart, he pulled the girl into such a tight embrace that Katara could do nothing but return it.

"I won't."

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Short, yes, but I got them to kiss! And this story ain't over. Not by a long shot, peoples. The real action-y stuff is still to come!


	21. Chapter 21

The others had arrived by the time they left the room. "Where were you two?" Sokka demanded. Katara blushed slightly.

"Um, one, we're sharing a room so don't blow it, and two, we got lost," Katara lied. They hadn't gotten lost; they had spent a good ten minutes talking before Zuko had kissed her, then had spent another five minutes in each other's arms, Katara trying to figure out what just happened and enjoying the feel of Zuko's arms around her, Zuko trying to figure out his emotions. (He thought only girls got this confused about emotions.) When they finally heard the groan of Appa greeting Aang, they left the room.

Sokka didn't hear the part about "getting lost". He became deaf after "sharing a room". "No, no, no, no, no! You are not going to share a room with him! He forced you to do that, didn't he?"

"Sokka, grow up! I asked to share the room," lied Katara, again. She wasn't going to get Toph yelled at for a dare again. "I'm fifteen now, bro. I can take care of myself when it comes to guys."

("You really think I'd do that?" Zuko whispered.)

("Not really, but you know Sokka.") Katara spoke a little louder. "If he tries anything, I'll scream. Trust me; you know how loud I can scream."

"Yeah. I still haven't fully regained my hearing yet," he muttered. "Fine. But if he hurts you, Katara, I swear on Mom's grave that'll I'll kill him."

"No need for that," Zuko said. "I would rather turn myself in to my sister than purposely hurt your sister."

With a promise like that, how could Sokka argue? Reluctantly he nodded and got on Appa to dig for his and Ty Lee's bags. Aang threw down the rest, tossing Iroh's bags to him. "Thank you, Avatar Aang. Now, to find a room…" With that, Iroh ambled off.

Aang looked at the temple with a depressed look in his eyes. "Are you okay, Aang?" Katara asked. Toph turned to her pupil.

"Hey, why don't you show me around this giant place? It's gotta be bigger than the Bei Fong Estate and the Earthbending Tournament Square put together." Aang perked up at knowing something his Earthbending teacher didn't know and getting to brag about it.

"Okay! Warning, though, I've only seen sketches of it, but I have them burned in my memory! Come on!" He jumped off Appa, grabbed Toph's bags and his bag, then headed inside to show Toph around, leaving Zuko and Katara alone.

They grabbed the remaining bags and went back to their room. Katara set down the ones she carried and dug out a blanket.

"I'm going to cover the window so it stays warmer in here. I think there may have been curtains in here at one time, but they disintegrated over time," she explained, kneeling on the bed under the window. Zuko nodded and started to finish unpacking.

It took a good ten minutes, what with all the stuff they had gotten from Lakai. Most of it was practical, like the cloth, food, and herbs, but some of it, like the incense, was just pointless. "No wonder she and my uncle got along so well," Zuko muttered, taking out a rather fancy incense burner. "They have the same eccentric shopping tastes." Katara laughed when she saw the burner.

"Think of it this way; at least you have something to help calm you down. What scents of incense did she give us?" Zuko shrugged and took out the various colored boxes holding the incense. He opened one of them, a dark red color.

"Roses, I think." He handed a small piece of it to Katara, who smelled it. She sneezed.

"Achoo! Sorry, definitely roses. What's this one?" She took a white box. Smelling the incense inside, she smiled. "Snow lotus! Where'd she get all these weird scents of incense?"

Zuko shrugged. The only incense he had ever burned was one of the standard scents found in the Fire Nation, a sharp cinnamon scent. The other one was basically scentless, just cedar. Katara looked down at the incense, shrugged as well, then continued to discover the scents.

"Moon peach, water lily, and…what's this one?" She had found a black and white box, the colors making a yin yang symbol. The scent was one she wasn't familiar with. "Hey Zuko, do you recognize this one?" She handed him a piece of the incense, colored black.

The memories that flooded the former prince nearly made him cry. The black pieces smelled just like his mother's perfume, nutmeg or cinnamon or whatever spice it was. Katara noticed and gently took it back, picking up a white piece instead. "Odd…"she murmured. "It's white, but it smells like…like Mom."

"I thought the South Pole had no contact with the outside world until you found Aang," Zuko said. "How does it smell like your mother?"

"We had some contact. Kyoshi was just a few days boat ride away. But Mom always smelled like the apples or pumpkins Dad would bring home every so often in the fall. Always, even when we hadn't had them in months." Katara closed her eyes as she returned the incense and closed the box. Tears started to roll down her face.

Slowly, Zuko placed a hand on Katara's shoulder, hoping to comfort her. Katara collapsed against his chest, crying softly. "I miss her so much," she gasped.

Zuko wrapped his arms around her. "I know," he murmured. "I miss my mother, too."

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Dinner that night was eaten in the huge dining hall of the temple. Toph was sitting in between Ty Lee and Katara, gushing about how Aang was so good at descriptions.

"Not even Mom and Dad were that good, and they'd spent twelve years with me!" Ty Lee and Katara looked at each other over Toph's head.

"How much longer?" Ty Lee mouthed.

"A week at least," Katara replied. Ty Lee nodded in agreement.

It was nice to be able to eat and not rush in case of an attack from Madame Freaky Chick, as Toph called Azula. ("Do you give nicknames to everyone you meet?" "Yup. That other girl, with the knifes? Even I can tell that she's depressed, and 'Gloomy' seems to fit.") Aang was relating the tale of their run-in with Jeong Jeong to Iroh, who was upset that the once-great Jeong Jeong was a fugitive.

"Then again," he added, "so am I. But from what you've told me, he's crazier than me."

"Not possible, Uncle," Zuko muttered. "I highly doubt that Jeong Jeong would buy teapots when they aren't important."

"Tea, my dear nephew, is always important," Iroh replied, getting up. "It's still light enough to practice Firebending, young Avatar. Come with me." Aang got up and followed Iroh out. Sokka, Te Lee, and Toph followed, eager to see how Iroh would Aang constantly unbalanced. Katara smiled.

"Want to watch?" she asked, nodding after them. Zuko thought about it, then nodded.

"I want to see if the way Uncle Iroh teaches Firebending is really as humorous as Azula says it was," he remarked dryly, standing. Katara giggled and followed Zuko.

"Stick a cup of water on his head," Sokka's voice was suggesting.

"Tightrope-walking does wonders for a human's balance," Ty Lee said from experience.

"Balancing a cup of hot tea is what I had to do during my poise practice," Toph said bitterly.

"And waste perfectly good tea? Miss Toph, think about who you're suggesting this to," laughed Iroh. Zuko looked at Katara, who frowned and continued.

Everyone was waiting around, trying to figure out how to get Aang to balance. "Uncle, what did you have me do when I had trouble staying balanced?" Zuko asked.

"That's just it, Zuko. You weren't half as unbalanced as Avatar Aang here. You could stay still for more than five minutes without getting bored or falling over on me." At that, Iroh glanced at Aang, who smiled sheepishly.

"Sokka, remember that I never sat straight back home?" Katara said suddenly. Sokka nodded. "What did Mom and Gran-Gran use to get me to stay perfectly straight and still?"

Sokka's eyes lit up. He ran off to get "it", whatever "it" was. A few minutes later, he returned with a box of broken porcelain, the tea set Lakai had given them broken. (One word: Appa.) "Put this on his head. If it drops, he'll step on the porcelain. Of course, Mom and Gran-Gran used sharp icicles with Katara, but this will work too."

Aang grimaced at the thought of porcelain. Katara nodded. "It hurts if you drop it, but it'll teach you to stay still for a long time. Trust me, I know." She winced and rubbed one foot on her thigh. "If you cut yourself, I'll heal it."

"Thanks." Aang sighed and turned to Iroh. "I'm ready." Iroh nodded and put the box on Aang's head.

"Stay like that for fifteen minutes. Given your, ah, hyper-activity, I think that's a good goal." Aang nearly nodded, but remembered the box just in time. The others decided to see who could get Aang to move first, but Zuko left, Katara not far behind.

"Sokka did that for hours, whenever I had to sit like that," Katara said. "I know how hard it is to do, so I don't find it fun to annoy whoever's doing it."

"Back in the Fire Nation, a stiff board was tied to the back of whoever couldn't sit straight. My cousin Lu Ten had to use one growing up, according to my uncle, and Azula still uses one, for posterity, she says," Zuko explained, opening the door to the shared room.

"Hmm. No wonder she's so grumpy," joked Katara. Zuko snorted and lit a fire in the grate. Katara nodded appreciatively and finished unpacking her belongings. (Distractions had prevented her from finishing.) She dug out the blankets and tossed them on the bed. "It's going to feel _soooo _good sleeping on an actual bed!" she said dreamily.

Zuko nodded in agreement. _Especially since I'm sharing it with you,_ he thought. He began to stare absently at nothing, just in Katara's general direction. Katara noticed and waved a tan hand in front of Zuko's face.

"Hello? Katara to Zuko. Are you still there?" Zuko blinked in surprise. "You were staring at me."

"Oh, no. Not at you, just in your general direction. I was…thinking," Zuko said, sitting down on the bed.

"About what?" Katara joined him, pulling a blanket around her bare shoulders, her parka set aside.

"…Nothing important," replied the former prince. Stretching and rubbing her eyes, Katara laid down on the bed, close to the wall.

"If you're thinking about it, then it's important to you. So what was it?"

Zuko was not about to tell her that his thoughts (as they had been most of the day) were about her and the kiss they had shared upon arrival. Instead, he shrugged, removing the cloak he had kept on and following Katara's lead.

"You were thinking about this morning, weren't you?" Katara teased, rolling over to look at him. "I still don't know why you kissed me."

"Usually when someone kisses someone else, it means they feel a certain amount of affection towards that someone," Zuko explained.

"I know that!" she exclaimed. "I just didn't think you had any sort of feelings for me." She curled up in a small ball. Zuko reached out and brought her closer to him.

"You grow on people," he whispered. Katara giggled and nestled further into Zuko's arms. Silently, they fell asleep like that.

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Five more days until SotFN! (hands out cookies)


	22. Chapter 22

"The air here is so dry," Katara was complaining five days later as she stood outside with the others. "My hands will never be the same. I don't think any amount of my seaweed lotion will fix the damage."

Sokka laughed. "Since when have you been vain, Katara?"

"I'm not vain; I just don't like the feel of my hands being so rough! You don't see me obsessing over my looks in a place like this, do you?" she asked.

"You've never minded having slightly rough hands before. Why is it bugging you now?" Aang asked. Katara blushed, something she was doing more and more often. Zuko looked at her, aware of the reason why she was blushing.

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It was the night after their arrival, and Katara and Zuko had been in their room, talking about nothing. Katara had laughed at something he had said and Zuko had grabbed her hands to stop her from leaving.

"I don't think so," he growled playfully. "You are not telling your brother."

"What? That you called him an idiot and said that you didn't see how someone so intelligent and pretty could be related to him?" Katara taunted.

"Yes, in particular that first part. He'll kill me," Zuko pointed out, pulling her closer. "He'd probably kill me for calling you pretty, too." Katara giggled as Zuko's warm breath tickled her cheeks. She pulled free and pushed Zuko, causing him to fall face first into some dust that was on the rug that covered the carpet.

"True. And then where would we be?" She helped him

"Without the only Firebender willing to fight Aang and not try to kill him," Zuko said, grabbing her hands again. "Gotcha."

"Gotcha back," she quipped, twisting around and pinning Zuko's arms behind him. "Give?"

"Fine, just let me go!" Katara laughed and let go. Zuko got the soreness out of his arms and sat down on the bed. Katara noticed the dust on his face and reached out to wipe it off. Zuko started at her touch, but let her finish. "You have soft hands," he murmured, grabbing her and bringing her to his level. Katara blushed.

"It's my lotion," she said softly. She kissed his cheek and bade him goodnight.

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"I just don't want rough hands, okay?" Katara said. "They itch and hurt when they crack." Sokka and Aang shrugged and nodded. There was just no understanding girls, particularly Katara.

Ty Lee shivered and Sokka instinctively wrapped an arm around her. Aang, Katara, and Zuko looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Everyone's room was near everyone else's and the sounds that came from Sokka and Ty Lee's room got annoying. (There was nothing bad going on, Katara's spying had proven that, but who knew kisses could be so loud?) Toph complained the most, since her hearing was ten times better than anyone else's was and the sounds really gave her headaches.

"I coulda _sworn_ that Snoozles hates Fire Nation people," she mumbled every morning. "If that's how he shows hate, Madame Freaky Chick better watch out." At the thoughts that comment brought up, everyone within hearing distance shuddered. Toph realized what she had just implied and made retching noises. "Sorry."

The blind Earthbender was currently sitting on a bench next to where Aang stood. She was wrapped in at least three blankets and a cloak. "I can't believe I got sick!" she moaned, congested.

Katara clucked. "You should have dried off completely after your bath before you came outside in this weather! It may be nearly summer but it's still winter here! At least, it feels that way." She went inside to get the teacups and pour Toph some of the tea Iroh had made and left on a small burner. (Aang was focusing on using his new Firebending skills to keep the coals under the burner hot.)

"What are we doing outside anyway?" Toph asked, taking the cup and drinking deeply.

"Aang wanted to show us something. Though why it couldn't wait until after sunrise, I don't know," Sokka said with glare at Aang.

"I want to show you, and let you hear, what comes along with the sunrise," Aang explained for the tenth time. "Every Airbender knows about this, even the babies!"

"Well it better come fast; I'm feeling worse," Toph muttered. Aang patted her shoulder comfortingly.

"It shouldn't be much longer. Wait! Look. Or listen." Everyone turned to the east.

As the sun rose, the sky turned a brilliant shade of pink and pale orange. Flocks of tiny songbirds lifted off, singing in perfect harmony. Katara's eyes started to water when she recognized the song.

"What's wrong?" Zuko asked when noticed, pulling her aside.

"It's a lullaby Mom sang when I was little and had nightmares," Katara explained. Zuko nodded and made as if to get Sokka, but Katara stopped him. "Don't bother Sokka. His birthday is coming up in a few days and I don't want him to be worrying about me when he finally comes of age and can propose to Ty Lee if he wants. And if she's old enough to marry."

Zuko nodded and stayed put. When the sounds of the birds had faded away, Toph stood. "Thanks for the music, Twinkle Toes, but I'm gonna be sicker than a dog if I stay out here any longer. We'll practice Earthbending when I feel better." Toph coughed and stumbled inside, heading straight for her warm bed. Aang followed after her, worry evident in his eyes.

Sokka turned to his sister. "Hey, sis? Could you and Zuko leave us alone? I need to talk to Ty Lee." Katara nodded, motioning for Zuko to follow before the "conversation" got started. They left to find Iroh.

The elderly man was sitting at his Pai Sho board, moving the pieces in no particular pattern. "Ah, Zuko! Would you like to play?" he said upon seeing them.

"Uncle, you know I don't play," Zuko said, "and I' m sure Katara doesn't either."

"Pai Sho? What's that?" Katara asked. Zuko shook his head.

"Don't ask, Katara. You'll never get him to shut up," Zuko warned.

"Oh, come on now Zuko. If she wants to know, why should I not enlighten her?" Iroh launched into a lengthy explanation of Pai Sho and the way it worked. Zuko sighed and sat down, deciding to get comfortable; he had a feeling that Katara was about to become sucked into the world of Pai Sho.

He was right. Two hours later Katara had won her first game. Zuko snickered when he saw his uncle's face. "I think the pupil just surpassed the teacher, Uncle," he teased. Iroh just gaped.

"I…lost. To a beginner! I must be dreaming," he muttered, shaking his gray head. Katara laughed uproariously.

"If this is a dream, then why are my sides hurting from laughing?" she asked. Iroh frowned, then began to laugh as well.

"I suppose it reflects well on my teaching abilities to have a pupil beat me their first time," he agreed.

"Or that you're getting old," Zuko pointed out. Iroh furrowed his brow and glared at Zuko.

"That's rude, even if it's true," Iroh reprimanded. Katara giggled and stood up.

"Thank you for the lesson, Iroh. I better go check on Toph and see if my brother has finished his little 'conversation' with Ty Lee. I cannot wait until they're old enough to marry," she muttered.

"Why?" both Firebenders asked.

"Because then Sokka'll stop going on about Ty Lee whenever she's not around. It's making me sick." To emphasize her point, she stuck her tongue out and gagged. "I have never known my brother to be like this. It's scary."

Iroh chuckled. "That's how a young man's mind works when he's in love. Most of the time,' he added with a look to Zuko. Zuko frowned and shoo his head, standing as well.

"See you at dinner, Uncle," he said. Iroh nodded, waving them off.

Zuko and Katara walked around for a few minutes, Katara moving closer to Zuko, eventually taking his hand. "This place is so big," she muttered. "I don't think I'll ever be able to see it all."

Zuko nodded, his mind elsewhere. When they came to their room, Zuko pulled her in. "Toph can wait," he said when she tried to point out that she hadn't checked up on the sick Earthbender. "Katara, are you still confused?" He had noticed her behavior towards him; she was careful when they were around anyone else, she watched him, and rubbed a finger over her lips or felt her hands.

"About what?" Katara asked. "Oh, that kiss and your comment last night." Zuko nodded. Katara came closer and kissed him gently on the lips. Zuko took the opportunity to wrap his arms around Katara's waist and bring her close to him. Katara broke the kiss and smiled. "I don't think so," she said, resting her head against his chest.

0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0

Yes, I know. The last two chapters have been mainly fillers. Give me a break. I promise, Azula is coming back within three chapters! (As to which chapter, well, wait and read!)


	23. Chapter 23

Looong chapter, peoples. Eight pages on Word, my longest yet.

* * *

A few weeks passed. Aang learned all that Toph could teach him and was halfway through Firebending lessons when the well-honed sense of impending doom Sokka had started up again.

"I'm tellin' ya, Azula could be here any minute," he said constantly. Everyone acted as if they ignored him, but secretly were worried. Without realizing it, everyone started packing and Aang's lessons were not too detailed, just in case.

It was a good thing, too.

Zuko and Aang were sparring using Firebending when Toph came running out. The sight of his Earthbending Sifu so frightened caused Aang to stop in the middle of executing a move to floor Zuko.

"What's wrong, Toph?" he asked, putting his shirt back on and floating up to Toph's level on a balcony.

"I felt those stupid tanks again! They're really close! Aang, we have to leave!" Toph grabbed Aang's hand and started dragging him away.

"Zuko! Go tell the others!" Zuko nodded and grabbed his shirt, putting it on as he ran.

Sokka and Ty Lee already knew and were helping Iroh, leaving Zuko to tell Katara. He found her in their room, working on something that she stuffed out of sight when she saw him.

"Zuko, what's wrong?" she asked. Zuko started packing the remaining blankets and other items.

"Azula's coming, if she's not already on this mountain. Toph could sense the tanks," he explained. Katara muttered something that sounded suspiciously like curses and helped Zuko finish. She grabbed the cloak and parka and headed out, Zuko not far behind, carrying the rest of their belongings.

"Hurry! They're practically on our doorstep!" Sokka was motioning for them to hurry from Appa, who was in the front of the temple, in plain sight. Katara scrambled on Appa; Zuko tossed the bags up to Sokka, who caught them. Katara held her hand out to Zuko, who took it and got on.

"Appa! Yip yip!" Appa groaned and took off. From below, they could hear Azula's shouts.

"Get them! Shoot at them, you incompetent, idiotic imbeciles!" Everyone who could turned to see that Azula had hired Yu Yan Archers. Zuko, having been on the receiving end of one of the arrows, paled.

"Get going! We have to get out of range!" he cried, turning to Aang. Aang saw the familiar face paint and urged Appa higher. Momo squawked when an arrow nearly pierced his wing; he latched onto Sokka's shoulder.

Appa rapidly ascended into the sky, so high that no Yu Yan arrows could reach him, short of being shot from a redwood or something. Aang collapsed against Appa's neck from his spot on his head.

"Whew. That was a little too close," he said, and everyone agreed. Sokka reached back behind his head and groaned.

"Way too close. Look what an arrow did to my wolftail!" The little stub of hair had been shorn off from a sharp arrowhead. Katara snickered, as did Aang, but Ty Lee felt the remaining tail.

"I think you'd look cute with a new hairdo. Give me a few and I can do it," she eagerly. Sokka gave his lover a sideways glance, but nodded.

"Nothing stupid, got it?" Ty Lee nodded and took out the tie that pitiful hung on to Sokka's hair.

"Hey, Katara. Do we have any knifes or something? I need to get his hair the same length." Katara dug for a knife, but found only blunt ones.

"Zuko, do you have a knife that's sharp?" she asked, turning to him. Zuko nodded, but didn't move. "Well?"

"I'm not going let it be used on cutting hair, Katara," he said, careful to hide the dislike that she had even asked to use his knife to trim her brother's hair.

Iroh looked at Zuko, but Zuko ignored him. Cutting off the ties that bind is different from trimming hair.

"Here." Iroh took a small kitchen knife he had kept on him from Ba Sing Se out of his belt pouch. Ty Lee thanked the old general and starting fixing Sokka's hair.

Meanwhile, Zuko sat wondering about the small relationship he had with Katara. Though a few weeks had passed, Katara still seemed to think this…thing between them was just infatuation. Zuko felt a lot more than infatuation, that was clear. How he was going show Katara that he was serious?

_Not fighting with her brother for one._

_Not you!_

_I took a well-deserved vacation, thank you. Now, admit that not fighting with Sokka will show Katara how serious you are._

…_Fine._

_Good. Try suggesting something. _

"Where are we going to go now?" Katara was asking. Zuko seized the chance.

"We could always find Lakai again. We go back to that town she was near and-"

"And ask around," Sokka finished. "My idea, but you beat me to it. It's a pretty good plan. Lakai did say that she traveled a lot."

"And her husband, Wotisname, should be getting her soon, so that'll be one extra warrior," Zuko pointed out.

Everyone agreed that finding Lakai was the best way to go. They studied the map and found a shortcut to Len Sung that they couldn't take before because it went over water. It would cut the travel time down to a few days. Katara, Ty Lee, and Iroh were eager to see the married Waterbender again and couldn't wait.

Those few days quickly passed and Aang landed Appa outside of Len Sung. "Come on!" he called, jumping off.

"Someone should stay here with Appa, though," Sokka pointed out. "He's kinda noticeable."

"I'm going this time!" Katara said. "I was hurt last time and I'm always getting stuck with Appa."

"I'll stay," Iroh volunteered. "I'm tired anyway." Everyone nodded and left the old Firebender with Appa.

Break

The port town of Len Sung was busy for only having forty regular residents. All sorts of vagabonds frequented the shops, inns, and safe houses. Apparently, Len Sung was the only place that would not, under any circumstances, turn a criminal in. (Unless they were a murderer or rapist, that is.) Therefore, it was here that Zuko could get away with letting his scar show. He was surprised at how many people there still responded as though he were a prince.

"No, no, I insist. Heck, your prince here is a hero here! There's never been a reported former royal becoming an outlaw!" One of the innkeepers practically forced the group to stay at his inn. Aang and Toph went back to Iroh and Appa, leaving the four teens to the stalls and shops.

"Oh! Weapons!" Sokka went off to look at the weapons; Ty Lee with him, since he was saying that she needed at least a decent knife. That left Katara with Zuko and the innkeeper.

"How many are there?"

"Let's see…Zuko, Sokka, Ty Lee, Aang, Toph, Iroh, and me, so that makes seven, eight if you count Momo, nine if you count Appa, but he needs a large stable," Katara said. The innkeeper nodded, then turned to his assistant.

" 'Ey Jas!"

"Yeah?"

"We're gonna need hay!" He turned and saw Appa flying towards the inn. "A lot of hay!" Jas, a stout young man, came out and gawked.

"I don' think there's enough hay on the whole peninsula, Lee." Lee nodded and motioned for Katara and Zuko to follow.

"D'ya mind sharing two to a room? All our single rooms are booked, except one." Zuko looked at Katara as they followed Lee up a set of stairs.

"Your brother and Ty Lee would want to share anyway, so I don't mind. As long as whatever room I'm in is as far away from them as humanly possible," Zuko said. "I heard enough to last me a lifetime earlier." Katara giggled and nodded her head.

"That's fine with us," she said. Lee nodded, and motioned Zuko aside as Katara went to divide the rooms.

"Are you two engaged or are you waitin' for the right moment?" he whispered. Zuko looked at him.

"What?"

"Are you gonna marry the Waterbender or haven't you proposed yet?" Lee repeated.

"I...I haven't even thought of proposals," Zuko stammered. "Why?" Lee laughed.

"Boy, I was young once too. If I was younger, and still unmarried, I'd have picked her meself. She's a gem."

Zuko dimly nodded in agreement. Lee studied him and thought that Lakai was a good judge of these things, as always.

"Zuko, are you coming? You want to get a decent room, don't you?" Katara called when noticed that Zuko was still at the other end of the hall. "Or do you want me to pick the room closest to Sokka's?"

"Hold on, we're sharing? You and I, I mean," Zuko said. "What would your brother say? That dare faded out several days ago."

"So? If he gets to share with Ty Lee, I see nothing wrong with me sharing a room with you. Besides, Aang and Toph called dibs on sharing. I think they're sweet on each other," she added.

"I thought Toph already liked Aang," Zuko pointed out as he went to join Katara.

"Yeah, but I think Aang has lost the crush he's had on me for the longest. I'm glad. I never really thought of him that way and I would have hated to break his heart by turning him down," Katara explained. "Where are the others?"

"Here we are!" They turned to see Toph and Aang hurrying up the stairs with Iroh ambling behind them. "Sokka and Ty Lee are on their way up," Aang said.

"Good. You can pick your rooms, Avatar. They're free," Lee said.

"Oh, no. We really should-" Katara and Aang started to say, but Lee held up his hand.

"No. I insist. Just stay in your rooms after dark. I may run a respectable inn, but louses and the scum of the sea always manage to find a way in," Lee said, gritting his teeth. The group nodded and chose the rooms.

Hours later, Katara and Zuko were sitting in the room they had chosen, bored. "I knew I should have taken some of my scrolls from Aang to study!" Katara muttered. "I'm bored stiff. And if you suggest meditating, I'll meditate you," she added with a glare at Zuko.

"I wasn't going to. I'm bored, too," Zuko admitted. Katara sighed and flopped back on one of the two beds.

"I hate this. If it wasn't for the sole fact that becoming worthless to a husband terrifies me," she said, "I go downstairs."

"Worthless?" The Fire Nation's practices were a bit different and Zuko didn't see how…that would make Katara worthless.

"In the Water Tribes, if a girl, well, you know, before marriage, even if she couldn't stop it, any marriage value she might have goes down the creek. She's basically stuck being an old maid." Zuko frowned.

"In the Fire Nation, if a woman is violated, the man has to offer marriage. Usually, the woman will turn him down and then the he's burned at the stake or drowned. It's not her fault if some drunken idiot takes advantage of her," he said. Katara smirked.

"So Sokka's wrong. Fire Nation citizens aren't barbarians all the time," she teased. Zuko shook his head and sighed. There was a few moments pause, then Zuko went over to Katara and sat down on her bed. Katara sat up and rested her head on his shoulder. "Would you mind if we share a bed tonight? I'm cold." Zuko smiled softly, wrapping an arm around Katara.

"Liar. There's something else on your mind." Katara rolled her eyes.

"You're good. I'm just nervous, I guess. What if something goes wrong?" she whispered.

"Are you being pessimistic? I thought you always looked on the bright side of things," Zuko teased. Katara smiled, then sighed.

"Hush. I'm just worrying over nothing." Katara fell silent and remained in Zuko's embrace, falling asleep.

The next morning found down in the main dining room.

"Lookin' for Lakai? You're in luck. The _Mainmast_ should be here in a few hours," Lee said. Everyone looked at him.

"The what?" Aang asked.

"The_ Avatar's Mainmast,_ the ship she's on. It pulls in here every three weeks," Lee explained.

"She's on a ship?" Toph asked. "Cool."

"If you should want, you might want to hit the clothes shops here. The crew aboard the ship is very fond of their dances, and you ain't dressed for sea life or dancing." The gang looked at their attire. He was right.

"Where are they?" Katara asked.

"The lady clothes shop is across the street, the men clothes shop is next to it. Just tell them you're with the Avatar and Zuko and they'll be more than happy to oblige." They thanked Lee and left.

"Who knew being a fugitive could be a _good _thing?" Zuko asked Katara under his breath. Katara giggled.

"See? It's not so bad," she teased. Zuko growled and made as if to swat her; she ducked and headed across the street with Toph and Ty Lee. Zuko rolled his eyes and followed his uncle, Sokka, and Aang to the other clothes shop.

The shopkeeper was thin frail old man. "Ah, the Avatar and the Royal Fugitives, welcome."

"What did you call us?" Zuko asked, his temper firing up.

"It's a name the people call you here. Ask any of your many fans, however, they'll call many other things and not all respectable." Zuko blushed. Sokka noticed and took slight pity on the Firebender for once.

"We plan to hitch a ride on the_ Avatar's Mainmast_, and the innkeeper guy said we'll need better clothing," he said. "Do you have anything?"

"Good luck getting on that ship. Unless you know someone decent rank, Cap'n won't take no one," the man said.

"We know Lakai. Is she high ranking?" Aang asked. The old man gagged on the tea he had just drunk.

"Is she high ranking? I'll say she's high ranking! You're guaranteed passage on it! I need to get measurements." So Zuko spent the next three hours getting measured, picking out material, and waiting around for the clothes to be done. Finally, everyone got their clothes and headed back to the inn.

Lee greeted them. "I'd hurry if I were you. She'll be here any minute. It's a good thing it's such a large ship. Your bison should fit on it easily." Toph turned to Lee and bowed.

"Thanks for everything. Where are the docks?" Lee chuckled.

"The _Mainmast _doesn't use docks. One of the crew just swings down. Just wait around the coast and you'll see. So to speak," he added hastily, remembering Toph's blindness.

"Thanks!" She ran off.

After everyone had gotten their things together and had retrieved Appa from the stables, Aang led the way to the coastline. "How big do you think it is?" he asked excitedly.

"Large enough to hold Appa, according to Lee," Katara said, sitting down and letting her legs dangle. Ty Lee joined her.

"Bet it's not as big as the drill was," she said. Katara looked her, reminding her not to mention that. Ty Lee blushed and mumbled an apology.

Sokka looked out towards the horizon. "I think I see it!" he cried, pointing. Everyone stood and looked towards the dark figure Sokka was pointing at.

"I hope that's not it," Iroh said. "Those sails are typical of a pirate ship."

* * *

Yay, the breaks are working! 

Did anyone get a slight Kataang slant to the SotFN? I didn't; Katara's just very motherly and a firm believer in hug therapy. (Who isn't?) Personally, I plan on supporting Zutara a lot until the next episode Friday. If you agree with me, then review, not only my story, but any of the good Zutara stories.


	24. Chapter 24

Gahh, my chapters are getting soooooo long...

* * *

"A pirate ship?"

"I hope Lakai's okay."

"Maybe it's not the ship she's on."

"It better not be."

Slowly, the ship sailed closer to Len Sung. Ty Lee, whose eyes were better than anybody else's, looked closely at the gold writing on the ship.

"_Avatar's Mainmast_. That's the ship," she said, turning back to the group. "Maybe it's just the sails. Maybe they were the only type of sails the captain could find."

"That's possible. Anyway, who's going to speak to the captain?" Iroh asked. Aang raised a hand.

"I _am _the Avatar, and it has my title in the name, so I'll do it," he said. Iroh nodded. Everyone looked at everyone else and hoped that it wasn't a pirate ship.

Just before it would have scraped the reef that surrounded the port, the ship stopped and threw down several ropes just a few yards from where the group was waiting. Raucous yells sounded from the ship and several seemingly well-built men slid down the ropes.

"Well, let's go," Toph said. Everyone nodded and went towards the ship. Some of the men noticed Katara and Ty Lee in ways that made none of the boys happy. Zuko instinctively wrapped an arm around Katara's shoulder and Sokka took Ty Lee's hand, not caring that Zuko was touching his sister if it stopped the looks. Aang took Toph's arm, indicating that this was time to really play the helpless blind girl.

"We're looking for the captain of the ship," Aang said to one of the men who looked less frightening.

"Why?"

"We need to get passage on the ship," Toph interrupted.

"Good luck wi' that." He turned to leave, but Aang's voice stopped him.

"We heard a friend of ours is aboard, Lakai." The man turned around.

"Y'know Lakai? Why didn't you say so? Cap'n will be happy to talk to ya'll in that case." He motioned to someone on the ship to let down a ramp. "There ya go." He waved them along, not paying any mind to Ty Lee or Katara.

"The more I'm around this ship the more certain I am it's a pirate ship," Zuko whispered to Katara.

"At least I haven't stolen from them yet," she pointed out. Zuko chuckled as they boarded the ship.

A young woman with her brown hair tied back in similar fashion to Zuko's old style (only lower on her head and more hair) was arguing with one of the crew.

"I don't care about that! I need those herbs for the infirmary! Jala forsake it all! Why did Toshi have to have a stupid crew?" she muttered, walking away. She gasped when she saw Aang and everyone.

"Miss Lakai, it's great to see you again," said Iroh, bowing. Lakai bowed in return, then started questioning.

"What in the world are you guys doin' on the _Mainmast?_ Is everything okay?" she asked, concerned. Aang nodded, then explained all that happened after they had parted ways. "So y'all need a safe to practice Firebending and not get killed by Princess Azula, right?" Nods. "C'mon. I'll you take to the map room. That's where the captain spends most of his time." She motioned for them to follow.

The map room was an airy cabin just under the deck. Inside, a young, well-built man stood inspecting the maps. Lakai didn't bother to knock; she just went over and kissed the man square on the lips. The man chuckled. "I know I told Komo to rid the ship of pests. How did you get here?"

Lakai laughed and embraced who was obviously the captain. "No matter hard you try, dear Toshiyan, you can't get rid of me. I'm like a stain or a bad smell."

"Or my wife. Who are these people?" Toshiyan asked, noticing the group standing there, slightly uncomfortable. Sokka coughed.

"Oh! Remember the former general I told you about, and how his nephew and the Avatar's traveling companions found us? This is them. Everyone, this is Toshi, my dear, sweet (if somewhat tardy) husband," Lakai introduced. Toshi bowed.

"Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise. Is it possible to sail with you for a while?" Aang asked, explaining Azula's pursuit of them again. Toshi nodded.

"You bet. If it'll thwart that bit-brat," Toshi corrected himself when he caught his wife's gaze, "I'll do it. She nearly ruined the _Mainmast _before we came to get Lakai."

"I told you, you can rob and scuttle the warships, but it's pointless to attack the Royal Sea Palace," Lakai said, wrapping her arms around Toshi's neck from the side. "The crew will squish you."

"This is a pirate ship, isn't it?" Zuko asked. Toshi shook his head.

"'Pirate' makes as if I don't discriminate which ships I attack. I only attack Fire Nation warships and rob the merchant ships. I won't touch Earth Kingdom ships. And I only, um, harm the soldiers who try to stop me from getting the treasures they carry," he explained. "I even have a few Fire Traitors in the crew. Really good for subterfuge."

Everyone looked to Aang. He paused, then broke into a huge smile. "These are the type of pirates I look up to!" he said cheerfully. "Is there enough room for Appa on the ship?"

Toshi frowned and turned to Lakai. They had a whispered conversation, during which Toshi's eyes widened. "There should be, but only on deck. He'd sink the ship otherwise," he concluded.

"I told you those cabins were a good idea," Lakai said. "Someone go get Appa. I'll show the others to your rooms." Aang ran off to get his beloved bison; the rest followed Lakai.

"Iroh, this will be your cabin. There's a few boxes of tea in there for storage, but the bed's the biggest and easiest to get into," Lakai told them. Iroh bowed in gratitude and went into the cabin. Lakai showed the others to the remaining cabins. When she completely passed by one, Sokka raised a question.

"That's the captain's quarters," she explained in a hurry. Everyone nodded. Zuko gave Katara a sideways glance.

"If Captain Toshi spends all his time during the day in the map room, then that must be where he spends all his time at night with Lakai," he muttered. Katara had to stifle a giggle and swatted him.

"Katara, this is your cabin. It's connected to the ones next to it by a curtain; as a matter of fact, all the cabins on this side of the ship are," Lakai was saying.

"Which is why the captain's quarters are on the other side of the ship," Toph said with an evil smirk on her face.

"Yes, that's exactly why. Come on!" The flustered Waterbender hurried down the passage. Everyone started laughing.

* * *

That night, in celebration of having Aang aboard, the entire crew decided to have a party. (Not that they needed a reason to have fun. Toshi had fun-loving crew under his command.) Out of respect for the younger ones, the typical amounts of ale and wine were absent. But the music was still there.

"This is better than Music Night back on the ship, Zuko!" Iroh cried gleefully. The music was more upbeat and had everyone dancing or keeping time. Even Zuko, who tried to hide it.

"C'mon, Cap'n! Show us that dance you and Lakai do!" one of the men, the one that Aang asked about passage, cried. The thin, pretty girl next him clapped.

"Yeah! Show the Avatar and his friends the dance with the Waterbending!"

Lakai, who had been playing the flute, stopped and looked at the girl. "Asha, you've known me since we were small. I hate dancing in front of people!"

"Oh, come on Lakai! I want to see you dance!" Katara teased. "It has to be better than Sokka's dancing."

"Hey! I can dance!" protested her brother.

"Like an artic hen."

"I do not!" Sokka turned to Aang and Ty Lee. "Tell her I don't dance like an artic hen."

"Actually…"

"The platypus bears back at the circus dance better than you, Sokka," Ty Lee giggled. Sokka "hmphed" and sat down. Lakai laughed.

"Fine. C'mon, Toshi dear." She set her flute down and took Toshi's hand. The man next to Asha took the flute and played a few notes on it.

"Ready when you are, Cap'n," he said. Various other crewmembers got their instruments ready.

Toshi nodded. "Ready, Komo." Komo started playing a gentle tune. Lakai and Toshi waited a few beats, then Toshi nodded to Lakai.

Lakai took a basic Waterbending stance and drew water from the ocean into a water whip. In time with the music, she moved the water into shapes and characters. She sent it to Toshi (also a Waterbender), who mimicked her movements.

Komo sped up the music and the two Waterbenders sped up their dancing accordingly. They danced in a traditional manner with the water weaving around them. Every time Komo sped up, Lakai and Toshi sped up. By the end of the song, you couldn't discern water from Waterbender or man from woman. They finished with a flourish.

Everyone clapped enthusiastically, even the crew, who had seen this dance several times. Ty Lee was bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"You guys would be great in the circus!" she said when Lakai and Toshi came over.

"No. I hate contortionists," Toshi said. Lakai looked at her husband.

"You do? 'Ey Komo! Just when were you gonna tell me your brother is scared of contortionists?" Lakai called, falling into that accent.

"He is? Gotta be the most well kept secret in the hist'ry of siblings!" Zuko and Katara looked at each other. They clearly didn't know how well kept from Sokka _their_ secret was.

"Now, whose turn is it to dance outta the new guys?" asked Asha. The various couples, even if two were in secret, looked at the skinny Earth Kingdom woman. "What? Komo an' I had to dance when he proposed. Speakin' a-which, when are ya gonna marry me?" She turned to Komo.

"Cap'n already did it, Ash," Komo said nonchalantly. "I told 'im, he congratulated me, he pronounced us married." Ash gaped and raced after Komo.

Lakai laughed. "I was wonderin' how long it would take Ash to ask Komo that. But she is right. Two y'all have to dance. It's only fair. But not Sokka." The warrior pouted.

"That leaves Zuko and Katara, since I can't dance to save my life," Toph said. "Being blind can cause that."

"Hey, I can't dance either," Zuko said. "I never took _those _lessons. The most dancing I can do is spinning a girl and holding one."

"And the Fire Nation's national dance, but even crippled people can do that," Iroh added.

"What dance is that?"

"A very _heated _dance," Zuko said, glaring at his uncle. "The Fire Nation isn't one for modesty when it comes to enjoying themselves. Especially adults."

Some of the crew had been eavesdropping; since six of them were former Fire Nation citizens, they huddled. Snickering with "evil" intentions, the other members got the six to take up the proper instruments. Sneakily, they started playing the dance. Zuko spun around, fists about to flame. Iroh and Toshi laughed.

"I think they got you, Zuko. My advice; dance with Miss Katara and try to keep it clean," Iroh laughed. Zuko and Katara blushed furiously, causing more merriment.

"Would you mind terribly if I were to freeze your uncle to his bed tomorrow?" Katara muttered. Zuko closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I'll try not to lose you. This dance is fast," he said, taking Katara's arm and spinning her around so her back was pressed against his chest. He wondered if she could feel his heartbeat and how fast it was before they had even started dancing. He waited a few beats, then spun Katara.

The dance lasted only a few minutes, but during that time, Zuko had managed to loose Katara's braid, cause both of their faces to become flushed, increase the heat of the fires and torches to a degree hotter than Hell, and receive many hate-filled glares from Sokka. The two teen benders finished the dance with Zuko supporting Katara as he dipped her down.

There was a moment's pause, then wild clapping broke out. "I think they just beat your Waterbending dance hollow, Lakai," Ash said. Lakai nodded.

"That they have."

Zuko brought Katara up slowly, locking her gaze with his. Katara, panting, kept her grip on his hands even after she was upright. Sokka made as if to separate them, but the grips three people stopped him. He looked at Lakai, Toshi, and Iroh, but they refused to let go. Aang was dozing, so he didn't notice Katara and Zuko walk off to the cabins.

In the lantern light of the passage, Zuko had to catch his breath. Katara looked a mess, but he oddly found it attractive. He pulled Katara into her cabin. "I've never had so much excitement that didn't constitute me running for my life before," Katara gasped, resting in Zuko's arms. Zuko chuckled.

"Your brother didn't seem too happy multiple times I had you tight against my body," he teased. Katara smiled slyly and moved closer so that her back was against Zuko's chest again.

"You mean when I was like this?" She moved the way she had during the dance, swaying slightly. Zuko growled and grabbed her waist.

"Precisely when you were like that." Zuko brought his face closer to hers. "You're beautiful when you look like this," he murmured in her ear. "Especially in this light."

Katara giggled. "What light? The candles and lanterns aren't lit; you can barely see me at all."

Zuko quickly remedied that with a wave of his hand in the direction of the candles and lanterns. The small cabin flooded with light. Zuko nodded in satisfaction. "Happy?"

"No," Katara said stubbornly. "You danced with me and still no kiss." Zuko turned Katara around.

"You didn't say you wanted me to kiss you. I thought you thought this just infatuation." Katara smiled slyly again.

"You mean it's not?" she taunted. "In that case…" She reached up and caressed Zuko's scar. He shivered slightly at her touch. "And about what you asked when I told you I had removed your shirt to heal any injuries, yes, I did like what I saw."

Zuko smirked and pulled Katara closer. "Did I ever tell when my birthday was?" he asked. Katara shook her head. "It's today. I'm seventeen." Katara gasped.

"Why didn't you tell me? I have to find something to give you!" She tried to get out of his arms, but Zuko just tightened his grasp around her. He leaned in, pausing just before their lips touched.

"This will work," he murmured before closing the gap and kissing the helpless Waterbender with all the passion he could muster. Katara moaned and kissed him back, allowing herself to be rotated and put against the wall.

"Who's birthday is this, mine or yours?" she murmured when they broke away for a few seconds.

"Definitely mine. I have the most beautiful girl in my arms," Zuko replied before going back to continue what he had started.

* * *

Recap- The Gaang is on Lakai's husband Toshi's ship, the crew decided to be evil and play a _very _heated dance, and Zuko's birthday present is a make-out session with Katara! Everybody's happy! Well, except Sokka. 


	25. Chapter 25

Okay, I got a request from BallBuster to continue the kissing scence. I did, half because of her/him (sorry) and half because I wanted to. So, the first...eight paragraphs are the contiuation. Feel free to skip to the break if you want. (FYI, lemon burns, so don't expect any.)

* * *

They broke off when they heard the footsteps of Toph and Aang in the next cabin. "Aang, what did you want to talk to me about-mmph!"

Zuko chuckled. "Looks like Aang has finally told Toph." Katara nodded, then forced Zuko's attention back to her by kissing his scar.

"It's your birthday, right?" she asked, wrapping her hands around his shoulders. Zuko nodded, kissing her forehead. "And you said that this," here she motioned to their positions and kissed his cheek, "was a good enough birthday present?"

"Yes, yes," he murmured, leaning down to kiss Katara's neck gently. Katara arched her neck back and moaned softly, adding to the moment. "Any time I have with you is a gift, especially when there's no worries of Sokka coming in and completely ruining it. Katara, I love you."

Katara smiled and kissed Zuko. "Well, you'll have to wait a year or two before I'm old enough," she teased. "I love you too, Zuko." Zuko didn't respond; he just grabbed her face and covered her lips with his. He gently nipped at her bottom lip, causing Katara moan softly Zuko bit again, this time letting his tongue gently brush her lips. Katara couldn't hold back her moan and tightened her grip on his shoulders. She opened her mouth, giving Zuko the entrance he had begged for.

He kept his hands occupied by running them through her hair, rubbing the sides of her neck, gently brushing her shoulders, then moving down her back, stopping right before he went lower. Katara returned the motions, rubbing his well-toned chest muscles and his neck. She pressed herself against him, wanting to be as close as possible to the former prince. Zuko understood and moved one hand to her head, pressing her lips against his.

"Happy birthday," she murmured into the kiss.

_Happy birthday indeed…_

* * *

Zuko woke up the next day in his own cabin. He remembered wanting to share Katara's bunk, but she protested in case Sokka or someone walked in.

"That's probably why Lakai gave us separate cabins, Zuko," she had said. Zuko grumbled about it, but he agreed. Now that he was awake, he slipped into Katara's cabin, which was next to his. (His was the end of the passage, so only one curtain connected it to another cabin.) Katara was still asleep.

Zuko slowly laid down next her, wrapping his arms around her. "I'll save you from the pirates," he whispered, causing Katara to jolt awake.

"Zuko, don't do that!" she muttered when she realized who it was. Zuko chuckled. Katara sighed and nestled against Zuko. "You do realize I'm in my underclothes and you appear to be without a top?" she asked.

"Yes," said Zuko simply. "The question is do I care?" He held her tighter.

"Lemme guess. You got hot last night and decided to get a cool as possible?" Katara asked. "I had to get a big bowl of ice cold water and wet my neck down to sleep."

"There are downfalls to being a Firebender. You can't always control your body temperature," Zuko answered. "But that's not the only reason I couldn't sleep."

"What other reason was there?"

"I was thinking of you," he murmured. Katara shivered slightly. She rolled over, meeting Zuko's lips in a kiss.

"Come on. I smell breakfast and I'm hungry." Zuko nodded and got up. He went back to his room to put a shirt on and met Katara outside their cabins. Sokka was still asleep, obviously, but the others were obviously awake.

There was a horrendous smell coming from the galley. "Agh!" Katara gagged, covering her mouth in Zuko's arm. "What is that stink?"

"I don't know. It smells like your brother's sleeping bag and my uncle's sandals put together with an unwashed Appa," complained Zuko. They saw one of the crew come stumbling out of the galley.

"Oh, thank Jala. Git in there an' tell Chen that his 'breakfast' is deadly," the man said. "He says he won't dump it 'less all ya new people choke on it. The Avatar an' 'is girlfriend, along wi' the acrobat, have already tasted it. The liddle blind girl nearly got sick."

"I don't have to taste it to tell it tastes bad," Zuko said. "You might want to go wake up Sokka, the other guy. Tell him there's a new dish to try." The man nodded and went to wake Sokka up. Katara and Zuko went to brave Chen's cooking.

Lakai grimaced when she saw the latest victims. "I'm sorry you have to do this," she said. "Chen's cooking is typical very good, but he has this recipe that he cooks every so often. Whenever he does, I pull the 'fasting for three hours' card. Toshi's starting to take after me."

"What do we have to do?"

"Getting sick after taking a small bite would be good," Aang said, hunched over a bucket. "Ugh, I want to get sick _so_ badly."

Lakai rubbed the young Avatar's back sympathetically. "When this is over, I have some peppermint that might help in the infirmary. How ya holdin' up, Toph?"

"I'd rather die." Toph looked pale. Ty Lee didn't respond since she was too busy trying to force an upheaval of her stomach.

Toshi tapped Zuko's shoulder. "Here comes the murderer now. Hope you have a good gag reflex."

Chen was stout former Fire Nation citizen. "Ah, two others. If they like it, I'll cook this more often." Chen dished out two servings of something no one could name.

Katara looked at it. "Do I _want _to know what's in here?"

"Probably not," Zuko said. They looked at each other and tried a bite at the same time.

To say it was worst than Zuko's attempt at tea brewing would be a great injustice to the tea. Katara instantly spat what she hadn't accidentally swallowed out in the bucket while Zuko gagged and followed suit.

"Five down, one to go. You're not going to have Iroh try it; he's old and it could kill him," Lakai said before Chen could protest. "And soon as Sokka tries it, I'm makin' something to help these poor kids!"

It was a few minutes before a groggy Sokka stumbled in. "What's this about food?" he asked.

Chen handed Sokka a serving and replied, "Breakfast. Tell me what you think."

"Food." Sokka ate the entire bowl before he's stomach starting reacting to the foul concoction by emptying itself everything he had ever put in it in the bucket.

"There. If Sokka gets sick from it, then it's vile, Chen," said Lakai, getting a rag and wetting it down for Sokka.

"Don't toss it out to the fish; it'll kill 'em," Toshi warned. "Burn it or something." Chen pouted but consented to his captain's wishes as Lakai led the sick teenagers to the infirmary.

"Finally! Now he'll stop making that cursed recipe." Lakai bustled around, getting plants and various potions down from her shelves. "Here. Sokka, since you actually got sick, you'll need to drink this for the rest of the day and eat soup until tomorrow." She handed him a flask of something smelling strongly of peppermint. "The rest of you, drink this whenever you feel ill." She handed out five bottles of tea or something similar. "Don't drink it all in one sitting, though; that'll make it worse. My advice would be to go lie down for a few. I am."

"Why?"

"The celebration last night drained me and I have feeling no one here went to bed at a reasonable hour. I won't tell anyone who doesn't already know, but next time, keep it down."

"Who knows?" Zuko, Aang, and Sokka asked suddenly.

"Well, _I _certainly do. Toshi kinda figured it when I came back from checking on you guys shaking my head and muttering, and I'm pretty sure Iroh knows, at least about Zuko."

Sokka looked at Zuko. "What did you do to my sister? And you better lie to me because I just lost everything I've ever eaten so I'm cranky."

Zuko returned Sokka's look. "I did nothing dishonorable to her, if that's you are implying. I merely led her back to her cabin and we kissed."

"A lot more 'just' kissing if ya ask me," Lakai muttered. "Toshi's a passionate person, but from what I could hear…"

"Sounded like one heck of a game of snakes," Toph finished, using an Earth Kingdom slang word for passionate kissing. Lakai snorted.

"He's telling the truth, Sokka," Katara said. "Now, you're sick. Go lie down on your bunk. You get mad at Zuko, or Lakai, or me later."

Ty Lee stood and helped her sweetheart up. Sokka glared daggers at Zuko, who merely glanced coolly back.

"Do you have something to get this awful taste out of my mouth?" Toph asked. "It tastes like something up and _died_ in there." Lakai laughed and pulled out some hard, rock-like things.

"Here. These will help. I picked it up at a port city. It's like candy, only very sweet. They help my stomach in the mornings. And the afternoons. And the evenings. I have a bad stomach." The teens took one each. "They won't have much taste, but anything better than the taste of Chen's attempt at eggs."

"Eggs?" Aang asked incredulously. Lakai nodded. "I've tasted better swamp water."

"At least swamp water won't kill ya," Lakai pointed out. "Now, shoo! I gotta clean up. Sanitary reasons." Lakai shooed the younger benders out. Toph grabbed Aang's hand.

"Come on, Twinkles, if you're gonna be perky enough to practice later, you need to go lay down." Aang rolled his eyes.

"See you and Iroh later to practice, Zuko?" Zuko nodded. He waited until they two twelve-almost-thirteen-year-olds headed to Aang's cabin to laugh.

"Toph has one weird way of showing affection," he joked. Katara snorted and took Zuko's hand.

"I could say the same for you. You stared down my brother!" Zuko nodded, leading Katara to the end where their cabins were.

"I'm not about to let anyone say I can't kiss the girl I love, even her overprotective brother," he replied. "If I love someone, nothing gets in my way of showing it." With that, he kissed Katara quickly, thankful the awful taste had left his mouth. Katara smiled when they parted.

"Must be a Firebender trait, being so bold and daring. What if Sokka had seen you kissing me just now? Or your uncle?"

"Who cares?" was Zuko's rebellious reply. Katara smiled and pulled Zuko along to her cabin.

* * *

"Breath! Breath, you idiot!" Iroh called.

Lakai laughed. "I didn't think 'idiot' was in your vocabulary, Iroh." The retired general sighed.

"When teaching my nephew Firebending, I learned to add it. He was quite the stubborn pupil," he said.

Katara giggled. "Still is if you ask me." Zuko growled and reached out to swat the Waterbender. Katara dodged him.

"Zuko! Stop flirting and get back to practicing!" Iroh ordered. Zuko blushed slightly and obeyed his uncle. Aang giggled and looked at Zuko. The older boy looked at Aang and nodded to Toph. Aang blushed and focused on his form.

Iroh sighed. "It's impossible to teach two love struck teenagers Firebending," he muttered to Toshi. Toshi laughed.

"Ever try practicing with a love struck Waterbender who happens to be your wife? Not easy. You can't yell at her or she'll make you sleep on deck." With that, Iroh burst out laughing.

Everyone looked at Iroh, even Sokka, who Ty Lee had helped to the deck. "Is the lesson over now?" Aang asked. "We've being out here for a few hours now, ever since Zuko woke up." The former prince had taken a nap after returning to his cabin. (The problem was that Katara was with him, still clothed, but in his arms.)

Iroh nodded and waved a hand in dismissal. Zuko dropped his stance and reached for the towel Asha had provided. He dried off and went to Katara.

Katara, Toph, Ty Lee, and one of the crew, a girl around Zuko's age called Dian, were talking.

"I still the best way to take someone down is from the inside," Ty Lee said.

"Knocking 'em out works fine for me, thank you very much."

"Freezing them to a tree is a good way to shut someone up. Trust me, I've tried it."

"There is nothin' like a dagger to stop a guy from comin' to close to ya. How d'you think I keep them idiots off me?"

"Your twin brother?" the other girls asked.

"An' what do I do when Zai is busy?" Dian asked. Zuko remembered that her real name was Dian-Sung, but she preferred her nickname and would threaten anyone who called her Dian-Sung, except her twin.

"Point taken," Toph said. "What do you want, Scarface?"

"Just wondering what you talking about," Zuko said simply. Dian looked at Zuko.

"Hmm…" She glared at Katara. "I never get the good'uns. All the boys here are ugly or they reek somethin' awful." Katara blushed at Dian's comment, as did Zuko when he realized Dian had just given him an once-over.

From the crow's nest, Zai's voice rang out. "Ship off to starboard!" Everyone crowded around the right side of the boat to see. "Pretty big, too."

Toshi looked at the ship. The older ones had to cover Aang and Toph's ears at his profane outburst. When he started saying things that would offend any woman, Zuko and Sokka covered their respective lovers' ears. Lakai waited her husband was then slapped.

"Toshi, what in the world is wrong?"

"It's the Royal Sea Palace, Princess Azula's ship."


	26. Chapter 26

Okaaaay...CoWAS was creepy, veddy creppy. Well, in case you couldn't tell, this fic is AU and has been since SotFN. Anyway, on with the show.

* * *

At Toshi's remark, an all-around hubbub broke out. 

"What?"

"Ain't she the creepy Fire-freak?"

"Watch your terms, Zhen."

"I thought she was on land."

"You an' everyone else here."

"We're all gonna die! We're all gonna die!" (That was Chen, the cook.)

Aang made an air scooter and hushed everyone. "No one's going to die! Just stay calm. I don't think she'll think much of the ship!"

"But we tried to attack her!"

"Yeah, but she didn't supervise the return fire. She merely waved a hand an' left."

"Okay, but what about the furry hunk of meat on deck? I'm sure Azula will see him" Appa groaned in indignation. Momo flew and scratched the offender's head.

"Y'know…that's a good question," Aang agreed. "Lakai? Captain Toshi?" The married Waterbenders looked at each other.

"Do we still have that hay and straw?" Toshi asked Lakai. Lakai nodded.

"Shi-Shi has been using it as bedding, but we have plenty. And some of it looks white from a distance…" Lakai kissed her husband's cheek. "Honey, you're a genius!"

Sokka, still pale, looked at them. "Huh?"

"We get a lot of the hay and straw, and maybe some wool, and make bundles to hide Appa's fur. From a distance, no one would be able to tell he's here." Aang nodded.

"But who's Shi-Shi?" Lakai hit her forehead with her palm.

"My pet lemur. Not winged, like Momo. She's a little lazy."

"A lot lazy. She was supposed to catch rats and such but you spoiled her!"

"It's not _my_ fault I don't have kids to spoil!" At that comment, all the men on board winced; even Aang had trouble restraining a groan. Everyone else (the women) laughed at Toshi's face.

"She's got ya there, Cap'n," Asha said. Toshi glowered at Ash, but just headed down to get the hay.

Zuko shook his head. He remembered one of the ladies of his father's court (not the concubines, actual nobles as in Mai's mother and Ty Lee's aunt) complaining that she had no children and it was her husband's fault. The other men, his uncle included, had given the poor man so many hormone-increasing remedies that, when his wife did bear children, there were a lot of multiple births. Women could get mad if their husband didn't give them children, especially in the Fire Nation.

Katara sighed. "You want to help make the bales?" she asked him. Zuko nodded and took Katara's hand.

Toshi was muttering under his breath when they arrived. A lemur with black markings was hissing at him, but the pirate captain didn't seem to care. "Captain Toshi?" Katara asked softly.

"What?" He spun around to see Zuko and Katara. "Oh. Come to help?" They nodded. "Okay. Just start grabbing handfuls of the stuff and pack it into those crates." Toshi pointed at the crates Shi-Shi was sitting on. The little lemur scrambled out on deck.

"Is everything okay?" Katara was slightly worried, if the tone of her voice was anything to go by. "You seem upset."

"You would be too if you were blamed for a childless marriage," Zuko muttered. Toshi nodded.

"I know Lakai wants kids; she loves them. I wouldn't mind being a father either, but we've tried and it just doesn't work. And she blames me for it. It's not entirely my fault." Toshi shook his head. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. Though I think she was just joking." Everyone turned to see Lakai herself standing on the stairs. "Toshiyan, I love you to death, you know that right?"

Zuko and Katara looked at each other. "I say we leave," she mouthed. Zuko nodded in agreement and the two teens left the married couple to talk it out.

By the time all the bales were made and set out, it was late. Everyone but the night crew had gone to sleep in their quarters below. (The night crew consisted of the navigator, the one who was steering the ship (the crew took turns), the lookout, and one or two ordered to hang around in case of a late-night attack. There were plenty of places to be alone.

Zuko took Katara to a spot he had found earlier that day, behind some barrels and ropes that were stacked high. "I want to be alone, and we're less likely to be walked in upon here than in one of our cabins," he said when he saw Katara's confused look. Katara nodded and wrapped her arms around Zuko's shoulders.

"I'm sorry for Sokka's comment earlier. He's a jerk at times," she murmured. (Sokka had called Zuko a jerk and didn't think he was capable of true love.) Zuko chuckled softly and pulled Katara closer to him.

"It's okay. He just has to get accustomed to the fact that I love you." Katara closed her eyes and smiled softly.

"I love it when you say you love me. It makes me feel…wanted, for more than just comradeship and family relations."

"I'm sorry, you know. For being such a…such a…"

"Angry freak with a ponytail?" Katara supplied. Zuko laughed softly and nodded.

"That works. I was being stupid before I was declared an outlaw and I'm sorry." Katara smiled and moved one hand to rest on his heart.

"Don't be. You've more than made up for it with helping us, helping Aang, and…" here she trailed off.

"This?" Zuko kissed her lips softly. Katara shook her head.

"Not that. Something else…" she said coyly. Zuko cocked an eyebrow.

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"And does your brother know how you talk to princes?" Katara gave him a demure smile.

"I don't think he cares."

"Is this sweet, little, gentle Katara? Or is this some rebellious twin I didn't know about?" Zuko murmured, brushing Katara's hair from her eyes.

"Oh it's me. I just wanted to see how you'd react to me being bold," Katara replied, resting her head on his chest. Suddenly, some loose fluff came over the barrels, landing on their heads. Laughing as they removed it, the two teens felt the impact of a long day hit them. "I don't think I can get back to the cabin," Katara mumbled, rubbing one of her eyes. Zuko paused and looked at the amount of fluff.

"Hold on." He adjusted the fluff so it made a large enough bed for two. Katara looked at Zuko.

"Zuko, what are you doing?"

"Well, instead of helping you to your cabin and collapsing with exhaustion from having to carry your weight as well as my own," he explained, "I'd rather sleep out here. With you."

"Zuko, are you implying…?" Zuko shook his head and looked at Katara.

"I don't your brother to kill me. I mean like we did back at the temple." Katara nodded. She was about to protest again, but an abnormally large yawn stopped her.

"Okay. Besides," she continued softly, taking Zuko's hand, "I missed feeling you right behind me."

Zuko smiled and started to lay down, pulling Katara along with him. "Good night, Katara," he whispered.

* * *

It was twilight on the ship a few days later. There were bales of fluff and hay spread out all over the deck, making some of the crew sneeze. Everyone was having fun watching Momo inspect Shi-Shi. 

"I don't think he's ever seen a regular lemur before," Aang joked. Katara nodded and pointed to Momo lift one of Shi-Shi's arms up as if to ask why she had no wings. Shi-Shi hissed at Momo and scrambled off; the winged lemur followed her closely. Lakai sighed.

"Cute. Momo's got a crush!" she said. "And it looks like Shi-Shi does too."

"As much as watching the romancing habits of lemurs is interesting," Sokka said, "what are we gonna do? Aang's almost got Earthbending and he's learning Firebending; what now?"

"Good question." Aang turned to Lakai and Toshi. "Well?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Lakai said. "Let Aang master the elements first."

"We don't have much more time until the eclipse comes," Sokka argued. "It comes in a month and a half. The comet comes three weeks after that."

"I have a month and a half to master Firebending?" Aang exclaimed. Zuko sighed.

"Aang, you've already mastered basic and are almost done with the advanced set. Uncle says after that, the expert sets are very small and then it's lightning. You'll be done before the month is through."

"And if you haven't quite mastered Fire, Toph added, "it's fine. Not like you'll be able to Firebend anyway, with the moon blocking the sun."

Iroh hit his forehead with a palm. "I completely forgot about that! Young Aang, we could train on our way to the Fire Capital, and you still could be ready to fight my brother."

Katara stood up. "And at every port, you and Toph can practice Earthbending. We could get people to follow us on ships and have a virtual army!"

Ty Lee spoke up. "I hate to be Ty Lee Raincloud, but how will we tell the King of Ba Sing Se that we're on the move to the capital?"

Komo, who had been listening, pointed to several hawk-like birds resting around the boat. "Them. They're really good mail carriers."

Aang bit his lip. "You guys sure I'm ready?"

Toph stood, punched Aang in the arm, then hugged him. "'Course we do. C'mon, Twinkle Toes! Buck up!"

Toshi stood and clapped his hands together. "Council o' War, map room, now. We better plan this out carefully." He left, everyone and their brother following. "Only myself, Lakai, Prince Zuko, Avatar Aang, Masters Iroh, Katara, and Toph, Lady Ty Lee, and Sokka. An' my brother and his wife." Everyone other than the mentioned people stopped. Zuko heard Sokka mutter to Ty Lee.

"I went from throwing my guts up, to sleeping, to watching Momo flirt, to a war council. Not a bad day." Ty Lee laughed and embraced Sokka.

As soon as everyone was in the map room, Toshi shut and bolted the door. "Okay, so far, we've decided to get going to the Fire Nation, hitting all the ports we can to recruit people. What else?"

"We should tell the King to hold off until we've gotten there. If we fail, we don't want the entire Earth Kingdom Army to fall at the same time," Zuko pointed out.

"He's already got some troops heading that way. He'd sent some out before we left. They will attack the day of eclipse. He promised to keep the majority back, just in case," Aang said. Toshi nodded. He looked at Lakai, who muttered a soft "oh" and started writing the plans on a spare piece of scroll paper.

"What about the Kyoshi Warriors?" Katara asked. Sokka shook his head.

"There's not enough, and we don't even know where they are. What about Jet?"

"No. Absolutely not. He'd kill Zuko and Iroh!" Katara exclaimed.

"Oh yes. La forbid that your boyfriend gets killed!" Sokka muttered.

"I'd watch it if I were you, Snoozles," Toph warned. "You started making out with a Fire Nation citizen _looong _before she did." Sokka blushed and looked away.

"Anyway," Lakai said, changing the subject, "anything else?"

They stayed holed away for at least two hours, planning everything out. They agreed to send messages to Haru, the Northern Water Tribe, and try to find Hakoda and Bato's warriors. Sokka and Ty Lee headed to their cabins after the meeting; Aang, Toph, and Iroh followed suit. Toshi and Lakai stayed in the map room to talk.

Zuko and Katara, on the other hand, had gotten into an argument on their way to the cabins. Zuko had made a slip and called Sokka an overprotective idiot.

"He's my brother, Zuko. Of course he's gonna be protective of me."

"Does he honestly think I'd do anything to you?"

"Are you telling me you never feared the worst when something happened to your mom or…Ty Lee?"

Zuko closed his eyes at the mention of his mother and fearing the worst. "Yes. Everyday. At least you know what happened to your mother."

"You think watching her die is better than not knowing what happened to her?" Katara asked.

"Yes." Zuko turned to her. "You don't know what it's like, do you, not knowing if someone you care for is alive, wounded, or dead? At least you have closure. You know what happened to your mother. I don't know and I probably never will!"

Zuko hadn't realized how loud he'd gotten. Everyone not already asleep looked out of his or her cabin, wondering what had happened. Katara didn't notice either.

"At least you can hope! I know my mom is never coming back and it hurts every time I have to face that fact again! Did I tell you what I saw in a mystical swamp? I thought I saw my mother, but it was just a tree stump. A tree stump! You know how much that hurt? I thought…actually, I don't know what I was thinking when I ran to it, hoping it was Mom. Just like I don't know what I thought when I said I love you!" With that, Katara ran out on deck. Lakai, who had poked her head out, gasped and went after the distressed Waterbender.

* * *

Ooooooh...Zuko's in trouble. Review please! 


	27. Chapter 27

Gah...I had 26 uploaded and didn't realize I hadn't put it up until my little sister, known from this point foreward as "Choir VP", saw me saving this chapter and asked if 26 was up yet. (She's the only reader who can reveiw without sending me an actual review via internet.) Anyway, here's chapter 27.

* * *

Ty Lee had to restrain Sokka so he didn't kill Zuko for making Katara cry. The Water Tribe warrior was out for Zuko's blood.

Zuko ignored Sokka and headed to his cabin. _"Just like I don't know what I thought when I said I love you!" _Did Katara really mean that? Once he reached his cabin, Zuko collapsed on the bed. He closed his eyes and fell into a fitful slumber filled with dreams of Katara, crying, repeating that sentence over and over again.

Hours later, Zuko woke up with a gasp. Someone was on top of him, someone larger than Momo or Shi-Shi. "Who the heck is there?"

"Shh, it's me, Zuko," came Katara's whispered reply. Zuko breathed a sigh of relief.

"I thought it was one of those street women of the crew." (Every pirate crew had its perverted people, and mixed crews usually had some men and women like that.) "Look, I'm sorry-" he started to say; Katara's lips covering his stopped him.

"Shh. I'm the one who should be sorry. I miss my mom so much and sometimes forget that there are people who have had a worse loss." Zuko sighed and wrapped his arms around Katara's waist, pulling her off his chest slightly.

"Let's just say we forgive each other and leave it at that?" Katara nodded and snuggled closer to Zuko.

"I didn't mean I don't love you, you know. I do," she murmured. "And did Sokka threaten you?"

"He tried, but Ty Lee stopped him from leaving his cabin," Zuko replied. Katara nodded again.

"You know what my dad always said about fighting? The best part was making up," she whispered. Zuko smiled in the dark.

"In that case…" Zuko pulled Katara's head up to his and kissed her, putting one hand behind her head to bring her closer. Katara moaned softly into the kiss, rubbing Zuko's chest softly.

"You sure know how to make up with someone," she whispered when the broke apart. She wrapped her arms around Zuko. "We need a bigger bed if I'm going to stay here all night." Before Zuko could answer, he felt Katara's breathing slow down; she had fallen asleep. Holding her tighter against him, Zuko soon followed suit.

_BAM!_

The sound of something hitting something else woke both the sleeping beauties at sunrise. "What the…?" Katara muttered, moving off Zuko. "What was that?" Another boom rocked the ship.

"I don't know, but I know a way to find out." Zuko got up and raced out, Katara is his wake.

Everyone else was out on deck, yelling. "What's going on?" Katara asked a crewmember.

"The Avatar hit that wench's ship with Airbending! They're abandonin' ship! We think." Zuko rushed to the side and looked to his sister's vessel.

About half the crew was in lifeboats, as were Mai and Jun. The remainder of the crewmembers were trying to convince Azula to abandon ship. It wasn't until Aang and all the Waterbenders (Katara included) sent a large wave at them did Azula leave. Everyone started cheering and hugging who was closest. (In Sokka's case, he kissed Ty Lee, who happened to be closest.) Toshi held his hands up and halted the celebration.

"Who wants t'comandeer the Royal Sea Palace?" The crew cried in unison and started heading for the lifeboats. Toph frowned.

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Hun, we're pirates. Our life is illegal," Ash reminded her. "Besides, if we want to get to the Fire Nation discreetly, we're gonna need a Fire Nation ship."

"What better ship than Azula's?" Lakai added. "You guys wanna come check it out while the crew carries any personal belongings over?" The group nodded and allowed themselves to be lowered into the boats. Katara stared at it wide-eyed as they neared it.

"Whoa."

Sokka nodded. "That is one _big _boat."

"It's a ship, Sokka," Zuko corrected. "I remember hearing plans to build this when I lived in the Fire Nation. There's the captain's quarters, four Royal suites, and the crew cabins, and a huge galley."

"Suites?"

"Suites. Each one has a sleeping cabin, a personal washroom, a meditation chamber, and a sitting cabin. One was for the Fire Lord, one for me, one for Azula, and one for Uncle. In the case of a guest, Uncle and I would share. Azula always got her own cabin," Zuko said. "The captain's quarters are just as lavish, only a little smaller. The crew cabins are supposed to be like the regular cabins on the _Mainmast._"

Lakai whistled as she steered the boat with her Waterbending. "Whew boy. So, I assuming you guys are claiming the Royal suites?"

Ty Lee nodded. "Yeah! The bed sheets are real silk! I haven't slept on silk in…a year."

Iroh laughed. "Three years." Ty Lee giggled. "I hope it feels as good as I remember."

"If it was Azula's ship," Toph pointed out, "it'll probably be softer." Iroh nodded in agreement.

"True. My niece is a spoiled brat."

"Saying Azula is spoiled is like saying that Chen's 'breakfast' was bad," Zuko and Sokka said in unison. The little boat shook with laughter.

* * *

"Silk!" Katara flopped down on the bed and giggled. "You were right, Zuko. Silk is wonderfully soft. And it's_ soo_ beautiful."

"Of course it is. I think this was supposed to be my father's suite," replied Zuko. "It has the biggest bed."

"I noticed. Now you can't hog the blankets!" Katara laughed. Zuko nodded but walked over to her. Before she stop him, Zuko had Katara pinned under him. "Get off! You're heavy!"

"Having more than enough blankets for both of us wasn't all I had in mind," he whispered. "Nothing…explicit," he added when he saw Katara's face.

"You're a bad influence on me, y'know?"

"So what?" He leaned down to kiss her when…

A knock sounded at the door. "Hey, youse two! Git out here! Cap'n needs to talk t'ya." Zuko rolled his eyes and got up. Katara giggled and took his hand.

"Come on, it's probably about our plans." Zuko rolled his eyes again.

"Who cares about the plans right now? Just once I'd like to have the whole day to do whatever I want."

"Maybe when we win you can. Come on." Katara pulled Zuko along, ignoring his mutters.

Sure enough, Toshi wanted to elaborate on the plans. By the end of the meeting, they had decided that, should they be stopped, they would pretend (using the Firebenders on the crew and Ty Lee) that Azula had captured Zuko, Iroh, and Aang. If someone wanted to know where Azula was, they would say she was sleeping and not to be disturbed.

"If we see ships in the distance an' they're Fire Nation, we can throw some ropes around Appa to prove Aang's be 'caught'," Lakai said. Aang started to protest, but Toph silenced him.

"Temporarily, unless they want to escort us or somethin'," she assured him. Aang consented.

"Well, then, until we get near the Fire Nation, everyone's dismissed." Toshi ended the meeting; everyone went off to do whatever he or she had been. Zuko went out on deck.

He had never actually been on this ship, he had just seen it and heard the engineers talk nonstop about it. It was bigger and better than he had heard talked about. His only regret was that he was sailing it as a fugitive and friend to the Avatar, not the Fire Prince he once was.

He didn't regret joining Aang, quite the contrary. He just wished he was still the Fire Prince, or under the illusion he was still Fire Prince. Then maybe he could be a little more help to his…friends.

That was really the first time he had ever thought of Aang, Toph, and Sokka as friends. (He thought Katara was much more than "just a friend", and the feeling was definitely mutual. Someone blinder than Toph could figure that out.) But Zuko had never considered the others his friends before. He supposed even Lakai and her husband were friends, seeing how both husband and wife had helped them before they knew them.

He wondered if this feeling, this feeling of belonging, came with having actual friends. If it did, he knew why he would always out of place at the Fire Palace

* * *

Warning: The next chapter will have them nearing the Fire Nation. I don't have time to write X-amount of chapters, and that would drag out the story out too long.


	28. Chapter 28

Ugh...stomach viruses stink. Yes, I'm home sick. Gah. Anyway, on with the chapter.

* * *

About two weeks later, Toshi called another meeting.

"We're nearing the Fire Nation," he reminded them. "How are we gonna make anyone who might stop us think this is still Azula's ship and she caught those three?" He motioned to Aang and the two Firebenders.

"I found some manacles down in what appears to be an impromptu prison hold," Katara said. "We can always use those if we need to. _If we need to,_" she stressed, seeing Zuko and Aang's looks. "Geez."

Toshi thought about it. "If they want proof we have all three, then yeah. Otherwise, I think a 'tied-down' Appa should convince them of Aang, maybe Zuko and Iroh, if they heard that y'all had joined forces."

"What if they insist on escorting or speaking to Azula?" Ty Lee asked. She was playing with a map while the meeting progressed. "They probably will."

Toph snorted. "Tell them that she has threatened anyone who dares wake her from her sleep with death and if anyone escorts us she'll escort them to the dungeon when we get to the Capital. Worked back home when I was sneaking off to Earthbend."

Lakai chuckled. "Sounds like a good plan to me. All in favor say 'aye'."

"Aye!" came the thunderous reply. Toshi nodded.

"Dismissed. Sokka, still want my help?"

Sokka nodded eagerly. "Yes, please." Everyone else filed out, leaving Toshi telling Sokka that it was "good, but ya need to…"

Ty Lee sighed as soon as the door shut. "I'm worried."

"About what?"

"Sokka. I think I saw that Water Tribe wench, Mei Mei, looking at him and following him to the cabin. What if seeing someone else?"

Zuko spoke up. "I don't Sokka is capable of hurting you on purpose. He is either too stupid or has too much heart to do that. Given what I know, I'd say both."

"Sokka's not that dumb; he just has his moments of utter stupidity," Katara said. "I think he's just been busy."

"With what?" Katara couldn't tell her that. Ty Lee frowned and went outside. Lakai lay down on the bed, waiting for Toshi to be done with whatever was so important that he could ignore his wife. Aang went with Iroh to fine-tune his Firebending before he had to face the Fire Lord. (Regardless of the fact he wouldn't be able to use it, Aang insisted that he be at least almost fully realized "just in case".) Toph said she'd be in the cabin she shared with Aang, sleeping most likely. Zuko and Katara, who hadn't been without the other since their little altercation, went to practice sparring with each other.

* * *

Dinner on the ship was always a big deal. Tonight was especially big, because the Water Tribe kayaks of Hakoda's warriors had met up and the men of the tribe were on board.

"Dad!" Zuko watched Katara throw herself at a strongly built man the others had called "Chief Hakoda". Hakoda hugged his daughter.

"Katara, how you've grown! You're looking more like your mother everyday, only not near as skinny. Your mother was a stick." Katara laughed and squeezed Hakoda as hard as she could. "Okay, let me at your brother. Where's my warrior son?"

"Here, Dad." Sokka came forward, fidgeting with something in his pocket. Hakoda looked his son over, then pulled him into a platypus bear hug.

"You've gotten big as well. I'd say you're almost taller than I am. And what are you toying with?" Sokka looked around and pulled his father aside to talk. Katara smiled, tears in her eyes.

"I'm so happy Dad found us." Zuko smiled and kissed his lover softly.

"I'm glad you're happy; have you told him about us?" he asked quietly. Katara paled. "I'll take that as a 'not yet'. You'll have to tell him sooner or later."

Katara sighed. "I know, I know. Let me enjoy the fact my dad is back in my life!" They watched as Toshi came up to Hakoda and was embraced.

"Toshiyan! I never thanked you for helping us out when we having troubles with those Fire Merchant ships." Toshi shrugged and laughed.

"Hey, what kind of Water Tribe man would I be if I didn't help another in trouble? 'Sides, they were buggin' me." Lakai came up. "This is my wife, Lakai." Lakai bowed and started informing Hakoda about his children's antics since they had joined up.

Chen came out and banged a pot. "If you're hungry, come and get it. The Water Chief, Cap'n, and the Avatar's buddies first, the rest of y'all kin wait."

Dinner consisted of what Lakai said was Chen's best cooking yet. Primarily fish, but he had raided Azula's stocks and found plenty of beef-pork, chicken-pork, and mutton-pork, along with fruit. Iroh tasted the pepper steak rice and sighed.

"We must make him head chef when we return to the Fire Nation, Zuko," he said. Zuko agreed with his uncle on this matter.

"As long as he doesn't make breakfast," the teenager added. Iroh nodded. He had heard of the disastrous breakfast.

Katara was talking to her father over some fried rice and tea. Hakoda glanced at Zuko from time to time, but just nodded at what Katara was saying.

"Ahem." Sokka's pitiful cough was barely heard over the chatter of dinner. "Ahem, Ty Lee."

Ty Lee turned to Sokka. Everyone around also looked at the nervous warrior. "Um, I…I want to talk to you after dinner," he said in a hurry. Ty Lee frowned and nodded.

"Okay, Sokka. Whatever you want." Hakoda and Toshi looked at each other and shook their heads. Everyone else continued with dinner.

"I don't think I've ever eaten so much," Toph moaned after everything was over. "That mango pudding was too good to stop eating." Aang laughed and offered to help his teacher-cum-sweetheart to the cabin. "No. I'll get indigestion or something. You wanna walk around with me?"

"Sure, Toph." Ty Lee and Katara sighed to see young love.

"So cute."

"They were made for each other." Sokka tapped Ty Lee on the shoulder and made a motion for her to follow him. The pink acrobat did.

Zuko gulped and walked over to Hakoda. "Chief Hakoda of the Water Tribe, maybe Katara has told you-"

"She has," he said, looking at Zuko sternly. He broke into a smile when he saw Zuko become paler, if that was possible. "And I am perfectly fine with it. I heard from Toshiyan and Lakai as well as my daughter that you have been good to her, even willing to wear manacles to help the Avatar. A man who will do that is the man I want for my daughter. But," Hakoda added, "if you want to propose, you have to make a necklace or something along those lines, and wait until she's sixteen. That's the marrying age for the Water Tribe."

Zuko nodded. "Of course, sir. I just have one question."

"What?"

"Is it that obvious?"

Hakoda laughed. "Only to someone who's been married before."

"EEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIYYYYYYYAAAAAA!" The high-pitched squeal of a woman rent the night.

"What in Jala's name…" Lakai muttered as everyone ran to Sokka and Ty Lee's cabin, the sound's origin.

"Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!" Ty Lee was suffocating Sokka. Hakoda laughed when he saw.

"Calm down. Do you want to be a widow before the wedding?" Everyone but Toshi turned to Hakoda.

"You mean, Pokey's gonna be Sugar Queen's sister-in-law?" Toph asked. Hakoda nodded, then remembered.

"Yes, that's true." Katara turned to Toshi.

"Did you know about this?"

"Yup. You think your brother could carve an engagement necklace alone? He had to get my permission to use the stone anyway."

They finally took in the necklace. It was a pale pink stone on a white ribbon. The emblem on the stone was a heart with the character for acrobat. Katara went over and embraced Ty Lee.

"Welcome to the family, Ty Lee. Would your aunt mind you marrying my brother?" Ty Lee giggled and shook her head.

"No. As long as I don't marry some shiftless circus boy, Aunt Chai is perfectly happy," she replied.

Zuko laughed. He remembered Ty Lee's aunt saying the same thing when she mentioned going for the circus if she had to continue classes at the Academy.

Sokka took Ty Lee's hand. "If you'll excuse us…" He waved everyone out of the cabin.

Once away, Lakai sighed. "Reminds me of our engagement." Toshi laughed.

"Only we were older and it was much more, um, _intimate,_" Toshi pointed out with a blush. Everyone laughed.

**

* * *

**

Zuko found Katara standing alone on deck a few hours later, after everyone else had gone to bed. "Katara?"

The young Waterbender turned at Zuko's voice. "Oh, it's you." Zuko frowned and took Katara in his arms.

"What's wrong, Kata?" he murmured, remembering the nickname her brother had called her. Hearing the name started the tears Katara had been holding back.

"I keep thinking about Sokka and Ty Lee. What if they die at the Fire Palace? Then Sokka would have gone through all that hard work for nothing! And what about everyone else? What if Aang and Toph die? What if Dad dies? What if you die?" She started sobbing.

Zuko held her tighter. "If anyone of us dies, my father dies first. If none of us dies, my father still dies. We _will _win this war, Katara. And I'll show you everything in the Fire Palace, including the gardens and the ponds. We'll get some of the rooms designed to fit your likes, as well as Aang and Toph's. There will be all the snow lotuses and moon peaches you could think of," he whispered. "We don't have to worry about Sokka, since all that will need to be done is remodel Ty Lee's suite."

Katara slowly stopped crying. She allowed Zuko to take her to the cabin. She kissed him softly on the lips before lying down. As Zuko got in bed next to her, he heard her mutter, "Thanks, Zuko."

* * *

The character on Ty Lee's necklace, for those of you who know, is either supposed to acrobat or jump or something along those lines.

Review, please!


	29. Chapter 29

Slight Warning: Hints of attempted forced sexual activity (polite way of putting in) and a shaken Toph.

Disclaimer, for good measure: If I owned Avatar, I wouldn't be saving up for _Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. _(Yay Vincent!)

* * *

There were no more parties aboard the ship. They were too close to the Fire Nation and could not risk it. The only ones who were even on deck were the Fire Nation people of the crew and the non-benders dressed in Fire Nation clothing. (There were only twenty benders out of a crew that numbered around sixty.) This meant that Zuko had nothing to do except stay out of sight below deck or in the cabin.

At the moment, he and Katara were talking about plans after the war.

"I know one thing Aang's gonna do," Katara was saying as she propped her head up on the pillows. "He wants to ride the giant hog monkeys first chance. Toph's probably gonna go with him. We know what Sokka and Ty Lee are going to do." Zuko rolled his eyes. No one called them just 'Sokka' or just 'Ty Lee', the two were always together. "What are you going to do?"

Zuko lay down on the bed next to Katara. "Well, if Uncle tries to make me Fire Lord, I'm going to turn him down. By rights he should be Fire Lord anyway."

"That would make you Prince Zuko again."

"Right. Anyway, I'll ask Uncle to make Sokka an ambassador, so it's not too much ridicule for Ty Lee that she's marrying a Water Tribe warrior. I'll do the same for you, if you'd like."

"Why? So you can marry me later on?" Katara teased. Zuko put an arm behind Katara's neck and brought her closer.

"I'd marry you anyway. It'd just be easier on you if you were an ambassador. Anyone who insulted me would be thrown in prison, and I can take it anyway. You, on the other hand, shouldn't have to take that from anyone." Katara smiled and kissed Zuko.

"Thanks." She kissed him again; this time Zuko kept her lips on his, raising his head to hers when she tried to pull away.

"No," he whispered, wrapping one arm around her neck and the other around her waist. He adjusted it so Katara was directly on top of him. Katara nestled her head on Zuko's chest.

Suddenly, the ship stopped, throwing the two teenagers off the bed. "Fire Nation ahoy!" Zai called.

"Is it nighttime already? We aren't supposed to stop until tonight," Katara muttered. Zuko sighed.

"Forget about that for now. Can't we have one moment not interrupted by the war right now? We might mot get this chance for a while." Katara looked outside the window. It was still day, and they were barely in sight of a Fire Nation shore. Zuko rolled his eyes and came up behind her, wrapping her in his embrace. "Ignore everything else for a bit, Kata."

Katara relaxed in Zuko's arms. "I just want to let you know you're the only one who can call me that." Zuko smirked and kissed his lover on tender flesh of her neck. Katara shuddered. She took his hand and led him to the bed.

"Can you do me a favor?" she asked softly, caressing Zuko's cheek.

"What?" Katara pulled his ear down to her level and whispered something in it. Zuko smirked and nodded. He sat down, allowing his legs to hang over the side. Katara took the hand he offered and sat down on the floor between his legs.

Zuko helped Katara remove her shirt, leaving her in the white tank she wore underneath. Slowly, Zuko began to massage the tense muscles of Katara's shoulders. "Ohhh…you're so good," she moaned, tilting her head back. "Are Fire Nation men trained to do this?"

"No. Only the nobles, and only the Firebending ones," Zuko replied, kissing Katara gently. With that, he heated his hands up, ever so slightly, to a comfortable temperature for Katara.

"I'll do you next, if you want me to," Katara said softly.

"If we have time."

* * *

They had time for that and a lot more before anyone came to get them for the landing party. "We've docked in some small inlet," Toshi explained as everyone grabbed weapons and any armor that wouldn't hamper their bending abilities. (Namely, anything leather. It was also the only type Toshi had. The metal armor Azula had had was too bulky and didn't blend in as well to the night environment.)

Everyone who was going stood on the deck, ready for Toshi's commands. Lakai was not going, saying she'd rather help fix the injuries from battle than inflict them. Ty Lee had also agreed to stay behind with some of the other fighters to keep an eye on the ship. (Sokka had practically begged her to stay.)

"Ready? We're meeting the Earth Kingdom troops about three miles from here and we'll plan our strategy then." The crew nodded. Toshi motioned to Aang, who was on Appa with his original traveling partners, Zuko and Iroh included.

"Appa! Yip-" Before Aang could finish his customary call, Appa had taken off. Momo flew up after him after grooming Shi-Shi in a lemur's goodbye. "See you at the rendezvous point!"

By air, the journey was no more than maybe five minutes. When they landed, an Earth Kingdom general named Huang greeted the group.

"Ah, Avatar Aang. Where are Captain Toshiyan and Chieftain Hakoda?" Huang asked.

"They should be arriving soon. There's only room for roughly six people in Appa's saddle and two on his head," Aang explained, bowing. General Huang nodded and looked at Zuko and Iroh.

"Relatives of the Fire Lord?"

"Prince Zuko and General Iroh are working for our cause now. You can trust them," spoke up Katara. General Huang nodded.

"If they are with the Avatar, then I believe it. Would you like a tent until the remainder of the attack force arrive? I'm sure you must be tired." Aang looked at his friends.

"I'm just hungry," Sokka said. "I haven't eaten since lunch several hours ago."

"Sokka, you ate a bowl of fried rice with pepper steak and vegetables soaked in soy sauce thirty minutes before we left!" Katara exclaimed.

"How much soy sauce?" Iroh asked, curious.

"It looked more like pepper steak rice and veggies soy sauce soup," replied the young Waterbender. Iroh gagged.

"That much salt will make you ill, Sokka," he warned. Sokka shrugged.

"Iroh stomach. So, can we get some food?" General Huang nodded.

"Of course. We only have war rations, but they are better than Fire Nation rations or sea rations."

"Then he's never tasted Chen's cooking," Toph muttered to Iroh. "Except the eggs. The eggs were nasty."

General Huang had the cook serve them, and they were finishing their soup as the others came in. Hakoda's warriors were organized and Toshi's crew…not so much. They looked like the pirates they were. As Toshi approached them, Toph noticed something in the way he walked.

"Toshi limps," she stated. "I didn't notice it on the ships because there's no earth there and I was practically blind. He favors his right leg when he walks."

Zuko studied Toshi. Sure enough, he was favoring the right leg. "How did you get that limp?" he asked quietly. Toshi looked at him.

"Oh, y'mean this?" He hit his leg. "I got pierced by a Yu Yan arrow while Lakai was on the mainland. Ash bandaged it, but not being able to heal like Lakai can means I'm stuck with this limp. It doesn't hurt, just twinges when it's cold or wet."

"If everyone's here," Huang said, "I'd like to start the meeting." Toshi nodded. Aang and his friends stood, ready to follow the general to the meeting.

* * *

"Okay, the eclipse is coming tomorrow, that much we know. But what do we do know?" One of General Huang's captains was throwing a fit because everyone else seemed content to camp there and head out in the morning before the comet arrived. "What if it comes early?"

"If I tell you what we'll do, will you shut up?" Toph asked. Everyone who had traveled with her for any length of time recognized the danger signs and looked anywhere but the poor captain.

"Yes."

"_We're _gonna stay here until around dawn then leave, but, and this is if it's okay with the general, _you'll _be staying behind." The captain gaped.

"You're some little blind girl! How _dare _you order me around! Do you know who I am?"

"Some idiot who can't recognize a Bei Fong when he sees one and has a mouth the size of the Serpent's Pass," Toph offered.

"You little wench!"

"Captain Jang! That is enough!" General Huang pointed. "Out this instant! Lieutenant Guan! Keep an eye on Jang." The mentioned soldier saluted and took Jang away. "I apologize for my captain's behavior; he's an idiot. Now, where were we?"

It only took a few more minutes to lay out the entire plan, including a back up one. Everyone bid everyone else good night and went to the tents. Zuko and Katara insisted on sharing one, to which no one (Toph stopped Sokka from spouting off) objected. Toph was content to sleep in her little rock tent. Aang was going to groom Appa before bed, and would probably end up sleeping on him.

Zuko led Katara to the tent they had been given; as soon as they entered, she tackled him to the pallets. "Oof. Care to explain why you just knocked the wind out of me?" Zuko grunted, brushing hair out of Katara's face. Katara giggled and nestled her head in the crook of Zuko's neck.

"It's easier than kissing you down, though not half as enjoyable." Zuko rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around the girl.

Just as they were about to kiss, Toph's screams and the sound of something breaking rent the air. "Get away from me, you sick, sick man. Twinkle Toes!" Zuko looked at Katara, who scrambled off him and ran to check on Toph.

The captain, Jang, was lying on the ground with what appeared to be a broken leg and broken arm. He was shirtless.

"Is everything okay?" Hakoda asked from his tent. Toph shook her head, shaking nonstop.

"That…pervert came into my tent and…well, I think I took care of him." Aang, who had indeed fallen asleep on Appa and was now awake, went over to his sweetheart and embraced her. Toph stopped shaking.

General Huang looked down on the pitiful soldier. "Captain Toshiyan, is there a prison hold on your vessel?" he asked.

"Yep. I'm way ahead of ya. Gian Li! Saki! Take him back to the ship and tell Lakai don't try to water heal him, just set his bones." Two pirates stepped forth and lifted Jang off the ground. Huang halted them.

"Captain, when you recover, you can have the option of being dishonorable discharged or demoted to a private. Take him away."

"Demotion? That little blind witch is the one who got me in trouble!" What he said next was not fit for anyone to remember.

"Never mind. You will be dishonorably discharged. Dismissed." With that, Huang walked away. He looked at one of the pirates at Jang's profanity. "Is there anyway to shut him up?"

"Let me do it." Sokka walked over and gave Jang a resound _whack! _with his club in the head. Jang fell limp. "There we go. Sick-o."

After the excitement, everyone returned to his or his tents. Toph joined Aang on Appa to sleep, never leaving his arms. Hakoda smiled at his daughter before returning and Toshi merely yawned. Sokka muttered something about how leeches were everywhere before heading back to his tent. Zuko and Katara followed suit.

"Why were you staring at that…idiot?" Zuko asked as soon as they were alone.

"I'm not attracted to him, if that's what you're implying," Katara said. "He was shirtless! It's not my fault if my natural reactions take over at times."

"So…you're saying that it's a natural reaction? To stare at a half-naked man?" Zuko asked.

"Only if they're well built." Zuko came up behind her, pressing her close.

"What about me?" he whispered in that low voice he had. Katara shivered and tilted her head back to meet his face.

"I'd stare any way if it were you," she replied. Zuko kissed her softly.

* * *

No, Zuko and Katara have gotten any more intimate than kissing and massages. Yet. (In my fics, there won't be description of anything more intimate.) 


	30. Chapter 30

Disclaimer: The I own Avatar is the day pigs fly. What? Toph's family symbol is a flying pig? YES! What? It's just a cartoon pig? NOOO!

* * *

"Okay, the eclipse should be coming within the hour. _No one _is to attack until the Firebenders start screaming for their moms." Zuko rolled his eyes at Sokka's command.

"They won't be crying for their mothers, they'll be screaming for Agni or my father do something."

"Whatever. And no attacking the common people unless they attack you first. Oh, and if you attack a woman or a kid, forget honorable discharge or medals or something."

Zuko had assigned to Sokka's "squad", as Aang called it. They, along with about eighteen others, were supposed to take care of the eastern quarter of the Fire Palace. Twenty of Toshi's crew were taking care of the western, some of Huang's soldiers were doing the northern side, and Toph and Katara's group (all women) would sneak in the south entrance. That was the side were concubine hopefuls entered. (With the eclipse, everyone would to busy to notice them and that was only reason Sokka, Aang, and Zuko had agreed to let them go that way.) Aang would be Sokka's group until they got inside while the remainder of the troops would attack the city itself. Iroh had agreed to stay behind in case something happened.

Zai, Dian's twin, was checking his weapons. "What weapons work well on Firebenders?" he asked.

"The moon works quite nicely," Sokka quipped.

"Since no one within the city limits will be able to bend at the time of the attack, and they'll be wearing metal armor…anything you can hit their heads or shins with," Zuko responded. "If you come across a woman soldier, they don't wear armor under their arms or calves. Azula does, but she's Azula. Even after the eclipse passes, Firebenders will be considerably weaker."

"Hush! It's starting!" Aang muttered, nodding to the sky. "Don't look up!"

Sure enough, the sky began to darken and cries came from the city below the outlook just outside the palace. "That's our cue, everyone. Good luck." Aang whispered. Everyone else nodded and jumped down.

"Ow! Ouch! Hey!"

Nettles. A lot nettles, if the moans were anything to go by. Zuko scoffed. He had remembered the nettles and had thick shoes on. "Please tell me everyone is wearing shoes," he muttered.

"I'm on air scooter."

"I'm a pirate, not stupid."

"General Huang's orders."

"Sokka?"

"I'm wearin' them, but the nettles still hurt. Come on, let's go." Zuko shook his head and followed the rest, muttering about how stupid they were.

He felt vulnerable without his bending, like anyone could beat him. The knowledge of fire gave Zuko a feeling of power, that no one could stop him from getting what he wanted (except perhaps Katara). He prayed that helping the Avatar atoned for anything he may have done in the past and his bending powers would return faster than the soldiers he would be going against as he crept through a gate in the wall.

The cries of the common people outside the palace's outer walls were so loud there were no worries of being heard. "Let's split up. Zai, take a few with you and go thataway, to the right. J'ai, take some and go to the left. Zuko, Komo, Aang, the others, and I will head straight for the palace. That way we can get Aang in but the chances of being noticed are smaller," Sokka muttered with some help from Zuko. Everyone nodded and split up into their respective groups. "Zuko, you know the layout of this place?"

"More than you do."

"Then you'll lead us to the entrance." Zuko rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Fine. This way." They went about five steps before some guards noticed them.

"Halt! By order of his Imperial Majesty, Fire Lord Ozai!" Sokka snorted.

"'Imperial Majesty' my foot. My pet zebra seal back home would be a better Fire Lord than that pompous oaf!"

"Insolence is punishable by death. Attack!" Sokka turned to Zuko.

"They want to kill me? Is that a Fire Nation trait or something? Every Firebender I meet wants to kill me."

"My uncle didn't," Zuko pointed out, playing along.

"The traitor prince! Attack!" The captain, who couldn't bend with or without the sun, whipped out his sword…

And was promptly run through by Komo, who had come up behind him. "One scuzbag down, a lot more t'go. C'mon." The remainder of the guards had been dealt with by some of the others, and they (the guards) were lying in a pool of red liquid.

"Gross," Aang muttered as he sidestepped the blood. "And people wonder why I don't eat meat."

Once inside the palace, Sokka had to scream to be heard over the sound of battle and chaos. "Aang! Get going! We'll meet up with you later, at the throne room! Wherever that is."

Aang waved to the others and flew off, fending off the few people who tried to attack him. "He'd better hurry," Zuko said. "I can feel my Firebending returning. Slowly, but it's returning."

"Then what're we standin' around here gabbin' for? Let's go!" Komo ran off and impaled another guard.

"Don't kill the servants unless they attack you first!" Sokka reminded him; Komo just waved and ran off, screaming his battle cry. "Do we stick together?" He turned to the former prince.

"Might as well. Katara would kill me if you died or got hurt."

"Likewise. 'Sides, you can tell me if these losers can bend yet. Ready?" Zuko pulled out his twin swords and nodded.

"I think I've been ready since I was banished." With a yell, Zuko lashed at two soldiers stupid enough to and try to attack.

"For the Water Tribe!" Sokka flung his boomerang at anything wearing red that moved.

They fought their way to the center of the palace, which was where the throne room was, according to Zuko's memory. The leather armor they wore helped fend off the most grievous injuries, but the two teenaged boys were still covered in cuts and slashes. The eclipse was almost over by the time they reached the throne room.

"I hope Aang got to Ozai and is currently kicking his butt," Sokka muttered. He winced when he touched a cut on his arm.

"We'll get Katara to look at that when this is over," said Zuko, tearing a piece of tapestry off and helping Sokka bandage the cut.

"Speaking of Katara…you love her a lot, don't you?"

Zuko wanted to ask where Sokka had been for the past month or so, but decided to be polite. Looking for guards, he nodded. "Yes."

"If we live through this…well, I'd be perfectly content with you as a brother-in-law." Sokka threw his boomerang out for good measure.

"Watch it! Sokka's boomerang!"

"Careful with that death trap, Snoozles."

Sokka chuckled. "Nice to see you to, Toph. Are you and Katara okay?"

"My feet are killing me and I think I'm pretty badly cut up, but Katara healed the worse injuries," Toph responded. "She's perfectly fine, I think."

Katara's dress was stained with blood and she had few bruises and cuts on her arms. "Oh, you're not that bad. And I'm so dirty that I'll have to burn this dress. Where's Aang?"

Zuko took Katara's hand. "Fighting my father, hopefully. We said we'd meet here."

"Why here?"

A loud boom from inside the throne room answered Toph's question. Zuko smiled grimly. "I had a feeling Father would be here. There were no guards around, meaning he thought he was well protected."

"Die, Avatar!" Everyone jolted at Ozai's words. Looking at each other, the three who could see pried the doors open.

Ozai was covered in bruises and was panting heavily. Aang was doing a little better, but he probably took every chance to heal himself with Waterbending, not mention he _could _bend.

"I'm not going down without a fight, Ozai! You've tortured the world long enough with this war!" Ozai spat.

"The world. You sound just like my worthless son!" The Fire Lord tried to hit Aang with a spinning kick but missed.

"Thanks for the compliment. Zuko is ten times more honorable than you." Aang quipped.

"I also happen to be right behind him." Zuko let go of Katara's hand and stepped forward. "Step down, Dad. You've lost this fight." Ozai scoffed.

"So my worthless son returns. Where is your sister?" Zuko shrugged, then handed Aang his blades.

"Get his Achilles' tendon and behind the knees," he whispered. "There's a vein in the thigh that can kill him if punctured." Aang nodded and swung out.

"What did you tell him, you bastard prince?" Ozai mocked. Zuko would have started smoking if his bending powers had returned full strength; instead, he resorted to a "go to hell" glare at his father.

It was obvious the eclipse had passed. The sun was out and there wasn't as much screaming from below. Ozai smirked and attempted to Firebend. Aang laughed at the look when he realized he couldn't bend yet.

"Recovery times stink, don't they?" Aang bent the air to get behind Ozai and, using Zuko's swords, slashed at the suggested muscles and vein. He cringed at the blood and looked away as Ozai collapsed, dead and defeated.

* * *

Short, yeah, but Ozai's dead. That makes up for it, right?

Okay, I got an idea for my next fic (you know the story's almost over when I start think of a new story) already and have a question. Do y'all want me to post a chapter now or wait? (It'll be a new storyline from this one, with a Sokka/Suki relationship instead of a Sokka/Ty Lee.)


	31. Chapter 31

As soon as Ozai fell, Zuko took off. "Where's he going?" Sokka asked. Katara shrugged and went after him.

_How I know the way to this room is beyond me, _Zuko thought as he raced to a room that no one had entered in a hundred years. He was about to open the door when he heard Katara's voice.

"What is this room?" Zuko turned.

"My great-grandfather had this room and the bell in it made so, on the chance the Fire Nation lost the war, someone could ring this bell. Everyone knows what it means, though no one's ever been in here." Katara nodded.

"Need help?" Zuko smiled and nodded. Together, they opened the door. The bell inside was huge, with the words "The day this bell sounds is the end of the Fire Nation" written on the bottom of the bell. Zuko found the cord and heaved.

_Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong! _Four times, for the four elements.

The fighting stopped cold. Down below, everyone turned to the bell tower. Zuko and Katara went to the window. Aang and Toph had followed them; they joined the two older teens.

"The war is over! Victory for the Avatar!" Zuko cried out. About half the people below started cheering while the other half dropped any weapons and surrendered.

Katara was crying softly. Zuko took his beloved Waterbender in his arms. "What's wrong?" he whispered, pulling close.

"Nothing. Everything's alright."

* * *

At least, it was for a few hours. As soon as the battling stopped, someone ran back to get Iroh and the remainder of the crew on the ship, and that started a rather large problem. The problem of getting everyone to accept the newest Fire Lord.

Some of the nobles were eager for a new Fire Lord. Ty Lee's aunt, after squeezing her niece to death and sizing up Sokka, said, "Ozai was mental case waiting to break and it's about time someone dethroned him. Iroh or Zuko would make a much better Fire Lord than Ozai or Azula. Ty Lee, I told you not to hang around with that girl and did you listen to me? I'm thankful Sokka here got you away from her and showed you the light."

There were some who were ready to duel anyone who wanted to place Zuko or Iroh on the throne. And there were those who wanted to be ruler or a son to be ruler.

Toph came up with an idea that she pitched to the others one day in the makeshift infirmary. Lakai and Katara were on healing duty and couldn't leave.

"Why don't you just banish the ones who want Azula on the throne and dismiss the ones who want to rule? Or throw them in the dungeons. That always works."

"The entire family?" Iroh asked. Toph shook her head.

"Just the head of the family. Cut off the head and you kill the snake. If you were to dismiss someone, just strip the entire family of noble ranking and keep guards on them until they chill out."

"You know, that might work if it gets bad," Iroh agreed. At that moment, the sounds of an impromptu _Agni Kai_ broke out. Lakai laughed humorlessly.

"Like right now?" she joked dryly. Iroh rolled his eyes and looked to Zuko.

"Nephew, would you be so kind…?" Zuko sighed and nodded. It was going to take a _looong_ time before life was even semi-normal.

He was right. It wasn't for another three weeks before everything started settling down. Finally, they could get to the real problem. Which of Ozai's male family members would be Fire Lord?

As far as Zuko was concerned, it wasn't a problem. He wasn't ready to be Fire Lord, that much he knew. Iroh would make a much better one; he had had all the required training and knew politics. Zuko did not.

"For the last time, Uncle, _I'm not taking the throne. _Not yet, anyway," Zuko said. "Maybe when I'm older, but I just don't think I'm ready just yet."

It was obvious that Iroh wasn't going to give in. "I'm too old, Prince Zuko. I don't expect to live another decade."

"Yes, but you would be what's best for the Fire Nation right now, after this war. You can handle those ignorant 'nobles' and the generals. I was banished in the middle of my Fire Lord training, and I don't remember much anyway. _I'm not ready._ End of discussion."

"I will take the position," Iroh sighed, giving in, "for only five years. Then you will be Fire Lord." Zuko sighed.

"Fine. But you will take the throne?"

"As soon as we either find the old hairpiece or have a new one made, I will let Avatar Aang make me Regent." Zuko nodded.

Lakai, who had been listening with everyone else, raised her hand. "That's fine and dandy, but whatcha gonna do about Azula? Some of the lookouts say they spotted a ship that might be hers." Iroh nodded.

"I have a plan for my niece, should she return. I highly doubt that she will, but if she does…precautions have been taken." Lakai nodded.

"Oh, and the repairs are complete and the servants said the palace is clean enough for human habitation," she added.

Zuko nodded. "Come on. I'll show you the rooms you'll be staying in."

To say they were staying in mere "rooms" was an understatement. They were more suites than anything. Ty Lee and Sokka were sharing the honeymoon suite until the wedding, when they would move to Ty Lee's remodeled rooms. Toph and Aang had the Avatar Suite, an old set of rooms that had been long forgotten until the servants were ordered to make them livable. Toshi and Lakai would be sleeping in Admiral Zhao's old suite.

This left only Katara without at room. Whenever she tried to ask Zuko about it, he ignored her or answered her with "We'll get there."

Finally, they were alone, near the Royal Quarters. "You kept asking about your rooms, right?" Katara gave Zuko a withering glare. "Um, right. Well, here they are." He pulled open an intricate screen that blocked off a room covered in snow lotuses and moon peach blossoms.

"Oh, Zuko. It's just like you said it would be. Thank you." Katara embraced Zuko tightly, then began to inspect her new suite.

"Don't you want to know what the suite is for?"

"An ambassador, I suppose."

"No." Zuko shook his head and walked over to Katara. "I'll give you a hint. My mother, my aunt, and my grandmother all had this room at one time." It took Katara a few minutes to realize what Zuko was saying.

"All women who were…

"Engaged to a Fire Prince." Katara paused, then sat down on a chaise lounge.

"I had expected a slightly more romantic proposal, but given the events of the past few weeks, I understand," she muttered. "Zuko, I don't know. What about my dad? And Sokka?"

"Both of them have given me permission," Zuko said, sitting next to Katara and embracing her. "The actual ceremony wouldn't be until you are sixteen, of course. Katara, I love you more than you can imagine."

"Oh, I'm sure I could imagine…" With that, Katara pinned Zuko beneath her. Zuko smiled and reached up to touch her face.

"So you accept?" Katara laughed.

"Would I do this if I didn't?" She nestled her head in the crook of Zuko's neck and bit softly. He refrained from the moan he wanted to let lose and instead returned the favor.

"Probably not."

* * *

_A Year Later…_

Iroh was right. Azula never returned. Some poor fisherman had found her body while fishing one day; apparently, her crew had mutinied and killed her. Mai was found a few days later, marooned on an island not far from Azula's resting place.

Her punishment, it was decided, had already been carried out in part when she was marooned. Nonetheless, she had agreed to work in the palace for a few years to repay the damages done. Jun had died when her pet paralyzed her heart.

"Thank Agni," Zuko muttered one night as he nuzzled his fiancée. "She was creepy." Katara laughed as she scooted closer to the Fire Prince.

"No creepier than Azula or Mai. Now, no more talk of the other women in your life. It's me you're marrying in a few months. I just hope the wedding is nothing like my brother's." Sokka's wedding had had a lot of pink and light blue, plus a pregnant bride.

"Well, seeing as how you aren't pregnant, and neither of us is overly fond of pink, I doubt a reoccurrence of Sokka and Ty Lee's wedding is a big issue."

"True."

The date of the wedding had been agreed upon. It would be on the day Aang had come back to the world, the day the whole expenditure had started. It was that day, a year after the war, that Katara and Zuko were found panicking.

"My dress doesn't fit! Oh, I have to untie it."

"What if she leaves me?"

"Is he thinking about ditching me?"

"Does the wedding gown fit?"

Needless to say, everyone was happy when the ceremony went off without a hitch. It was a traditional Fire Nation ceremony with a few major Water Tribe aspects thrown in. (Basically, where there was supposed to be a jumping over flames, Zuko and Katara wading into freezing cold, ankle deep water.)

"Y'know, it's funny how, when we first saw each other, I was ready to hurt your grandmother and you were scared witless of me," Zuko said at the feast afterwards.

"Fate is funny that way, I guess." Zuko nodded and led his new wife out onto the dance floor. Dimly, in the far recesses of his mind, he heard his conscience pipe up after a year-long absence.

_Told ya so.

* * *

So, that is the end of my longest fic ever. Wow. But, if you want another story, you won't have to wait long.One, VP (my sister) will probably start pestering me to get teh next fic up. Two, I've already got the next fic planned out. So, just hang on and wait for that little Author Alert Email in your inbox!_

Lota


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